The Chronicles of Empiyra
by Absolyatare Sage
Summary: Empiyra is an organisation in existence to keep Team Rocket under control. People from all walks of life are thrown together to fight for Sherwood, embarking on an adventure filled with action, emotion and the not so simple issues of life.
1. Prologue

**Anywhere but home**

Prologue

She glanced up at the sky as thunder rumbled overhead. She looked forward again, not really caring. She didn't care about anything. She didn't care that the clouds were grey and hanging low with storm, that branches and the like were whipping her face and arms, that she was constantly stumbling and tripping, but never falling over. She always regained her footing at the last moment, as she always did. Her feet were sure over the uneven forest ground, but she wasn't concentrating on it. She wasn't concentrating on anything. It was just something that she did instinctively, subconsciously.

Her thoughts were all jumbled, merged. Her head was a whirlwind of despair as her feet pounded through the thick bush. She was making swift time considering her disarray and the heavy bag on her back. She closed her eyes momentarily to clear her blurred vision. She felt frustrated that she could barely see. Everything was a blemished and smudged together from the wetness in her eyes. They stung painfully, though more with emotion rather than physically.

She thought back to her last conversation before she had climbed down the tree and ran down the street to reach the edge of the forest.

"_You're leaving aren't you?" She looked up, her heart leaping up inside her throat. She nodded, adrenaline pumping in her blood. _

"_I can't take this bullshit any longer." Was her simple reply, and she went back to thrusting things into her bag, eyes furiously glaring at anything that came into her view. _

"_You'll come back sometime won't you?"_

_She sighed, her hard face softening a little. "Maybe. Maybe one day. Not anytime soon though." Her hand rested on her mobile phone and she was about to throw it in when Latty stopped her._

"_Take mine." She tossed it to her. She caught it deftly in one hand. "Otherwise they'll try and reach you." Anaya nodded and managed a small, swift smile before zipping up her bag and swinging it onto her back, pocketing her sister's mobile. "You're going to become a Pokemon trainer, right?" Latty said, it being more of a statement than a question. _

"_Yep." Anaya replied. "They're gonna wish they'd never wasted their time forcing me to go to school. They'll see one day that it wasn't my path." Latty opened her mouth to say something, presumably a question about what her path may be, but she situation came back to her and she swallowed it down. _

"_Well, good luck." She said softly. Her older sister met her eyes for a moment before hugging her tightly. _

"_Thanks." She whispered, let go and climbed from her window out onto the thick tree branch. She stood precariously and turned back, offering a smile. "Call me, sis!" She said, before turning and swinging down the tree from branch to branch to the bottom before taking off down the road._

Anaya continued to speed through the forest as she pulled the mobile from her pocket. She looked at it for a moment before pulling her bag around from her back to her side, painstakingly unzipping the small side pocket and pushing the mobile inside, amongst unused tissues. She wasn't sure whether it would rain or not, but she wasn't taking any chances.

There was a bright flash of lightning, enough to momentarily blind her. She tripped, stumbled and fell hard to the ground. She gasped in surprise, multiple things scratching her skin and an arm hitting the trunk of a tree. She dragged herself up, wincing in pain just as the thunder rumbled across the dark sky overhead. A pang of homesickness entered her, but after a moment's thought she realised that she didn't want to go back home. Not back there. She wanted to be anywhere but there.

So she carried onwards.

_She got home late that afternoon. It would be dinnertime soon. The day had been long and stressful. Anaya had more homework and assignments than she dared to count, her biology teacher was a biased prick and she didn't get a word of what her maths teacher meant when he tried to explain things to her. Everything was going downhill. She hated school. Had it been her choice she would have been off travelling through regions collecting badges with a team of Pokemon years ago, the moment it would have become legal when she was old enough._

_It was all her parents' fault. They believed that there was no future in Pokemon training, that it wasn't a career. So they made her continue her schooling, regardless of the fact that she obviously loved Pokemon and had a natural talent for understanding them. Most of the Pokemon she ever met she fell in love with, and they didn't mind her._

_Many of her old friends were gone, off on Pokemon journeys, while she was forced to stay at home. And home had stopped being a happy place long ago._

_She breathed in deeply, let out a sigh and opened the door._

The day was getting even darker now. Not from the storm clouds, but because the sun would be setting. Another flash lit up the darkness. The wind howled around her, goosebumps rising on her arms. In her haste she hadn't thought to pack a jumper because of the relative humidity from the storm and the fact that it was the last month of summer, so it was still warm most of the time.

Flash!

She stumbled and narrowly missed a tree.

Flash!

She missed a path of soil and instead stepped on a loose stone. Her foot slipped to the side and she went down with a cry, pain shooting through her ankle. _No, don't tell me it's twisted… _She went to stand again, putting slight weight on that foot. She didn't feel any pain, so she put a little more on. It immediately began to throb.

Ayana cursed, pausing to regain her breath. As she rested she thought. The more she thought about what she was doing, the more ludicrous it seemed. She thought about going back, returning. Then anger entered her. She didn't belong to them. She was going to live her won life now. And the humiliation of going back would be too much. She didn't want to fail. She didn't want to show them that she was weak, that she needed them.

So she ignored the pain and walked.

_She hadn't really expected it this evening. She had hoped for some peace and quiet, a break from all the stress of life. But she knew she wouldn't get it the moment she stepped into the house. Something smashed. Her dad was yelling, her mum was screaming, and Ayana felt such anger well up inside her that she felt the blood all at once rushing ton her face, a scream rising in her throat in response to all the noise. Almost a year this had been going on. So long. She had had enough. Walking to the end of the corridor, she entered the kitchen. A plate lay shattered on the ground, a chair was knocked against the wall. And in the thick of it all her parents were screaming at each other, arguing at the top of their voices. _

_How dare they argue and fight all the time when their daughter was going through hell. How dare they. And she joined in the screaming._

"_Why the hell do you do this! Why don't you just fucking well get a divorce and have it over with!" She shrieked, louder than both of them. The noise hushed to a heavy silence. Her parents stared at her. Her father stood, tall and furious, his face creased in frustration, the veins on his arms bulging. His brown eyes stared at her strikingly. Ayana had his eyes, chocolate brown, both with hair colour of the same. Her mother was seemingly the complete opposite. Unlike his, her hair was blond, thick and frizzy, tightly curled whilst his was thin, straight and receding. Her eyes were an intimate clear blue, as light as Ayana's were dark. Both Ayana and Natty had the masses of curly mussed hair, the latter being practically a splitting image of their mother with the same colour features. Sometimes Ayana hated her for it because of their parents' behaviour. _

_And finally, for once all was quiet. But it was an uncomfortable silence, and Ayana was brought back to reality. Still in a flurry of rage, she tore off through the kitchen and up the stairs to the second story, not wanting to survey the scene any longer. She fled to her room. _

The thunder was rolling across the sky so often and erratically it had Ayana jogging about in a frenzy, half just wanting to run with the pain and hopelessness she felt, half wanting to stop and collapse to the ground in tears. She hadn't cried yet. She didn't want to cry. She didn't want to cry because if they ever found out they might take satisfaction in it. She never wanted them to have that knowledge.

So she ran.

There was a short bout of thin rain that splashed over her, and her instincts told her to find shelter. Only then did it enter her mind that she was lost.

Suddenly she heard something. It was different from the claps of thunder, the wind in the trees. It was the roars of a Pokemon. Nearby, so close she jumped in surprise and instinctive fear. They were aggressive roars, territorial maybe? No, she eliminated the possibility in her mind. Then there were growls, that of a different Pokemon. Then the sounds of a fight.

She decided it would be best to go in the opposite direction.

It was then that it happened. There was an enormous flash of lightning, then there was a spark of red high atop a tree nearby. Ayana flinched as she felt tiny currents zapping her body, then a massive rumble of thunder echoed and reverberated in her ears. It was massive, and she cowered where she was, staring at the small flames as it grew and ate away at the branches and leaves, climbing higher, eating it's way down. The flames leapt to another tree, lapping at it hungrily, consuming it in it's heat and redness in the dusk.

There was a final flash of lightning then Ayana was running, running hard as she could in her panic and fear. She felt like a scared, vulnerable creature like the Pokemon crying out and moving in the forest around her. She caught glimpses of a few Rattata, Sentret, even a Stantler. She didn't stop to think about why it was here when she had never heard of Stantler living in the forest in this area. But then she realised for the second time that she didn't know where she was.

The forest fire was raging around her now, flickering flames of red and orange and gold, eating everything they could find. Something past in front of her face, a Pidgey she assumed. She glanced over she shoulder. A mistake. A whiff of smoke entered her nostrils and she couldn't see. She slowed to a blind stumble with a short scream, holding her eyes that were erupting in waves of pain and stinging heat. She scrambled blindly around her, trying to rub the smoke from her eyes, but her efforts were futile. They burned as she ran in no particular direction, desperately wrenching her eyes open long enough every few moments to gather her bearings and make sure she wasn't about to run into anything.

Then suddenly her legs ran into something, sending her sprawling over it in a heap. Her arms hit hot ash and she screamed in the burning heat, scrambling about to find her feet. She spun around and tore her eyes open long enough to see what it was she had fallen over. She choked in shock. It was the dead, charred body of a Pokemon. A big one at that, a bulky black thing that lay lifeless on the scorched ground. Flames flickered into her vision and she snapped out of it, taking off again in the opposite direction of the fire. She could keep her eyes open for as long as a second now before having to blink, but the smoke was obscuring her vision so it was an almost pointless achievement. Then something caught her eye. A nest, in the corner of a few boulders. It was large and round, made from various branches and leaves. And it was just catching fire.

Panic lanced her as she recognised a large egg sitting in it, one and half times larger than her own head. Next to it another egg, crushed into the nest. Automatically and without thinking, her hands shot through the flames against all logic and seized the egg, lifting it back to her before running again. She was surprised at its weight, it not looking too heavy, and she dragged in a ragged breath of smoke that resulted in a stream of coughs, her throat stinging, her breath raking harshly. The heat was unbearable. She could see nothing in the smoke. A few Pokemon that hadn't gotten away sped around in all directions, trying to get away.

Then she saw it. A cave, hidden amongst the rocks and boulders behind the Pokemon nest. She gathered her courage and stepped through some flames to dive down into it, rolling down a slope into darkness. She hit a wall and came to a stop, laying there, gasping for breath and pain, momentarily delayed erupting up her burnt legs. She lay still for a moment longer in the darkness, a red glow emitting from the cave mouth up above her, before slipping off her bag with a degree of pain and unzipping it, rummaging about until she found her water bottle. She fumbled the lid off before pouring it over her left leg. She screamed as fresh pain simmered across it, then quickly poured some over the other. Then on her slightly burnt hands and wrists. Then into her parched mouth. She even poured a little trickle over the egg she cradled in the crook of one arm for fear the heat might kill anything inside, but she wasn't sure at all. She smelt smoke and grabbed the first thing that came to her hand. A spare shirt.

She soaked a patch of it and tied it around her face, loose enough to breath through and lay down as low as she could get, her arms wrapped around the egg. She hoped nothing burning would fall in, but nothing did. She wasn't sure whether or not the cave would fill with smoke, she wasn't sure of anything. She knew nothing about anything she thought, the hopelessness threatening to surface again. But it was overridden by her fear, and she continued to lay in wait.

It must have been hours she lay there, not able to sleep, too shocked and afraid to move. For hours all her thoughts had whirled around in her head mindlessly, and all she wanted was to think of absolutely nothing, but it wasn't possible. She just couldn't stop thinking. It was then that she noticed the light coming from the mouth of the cave. A Dark blue. Dawn.

She packed her bag with what she had taken out and pulled it onto her back, took up the large egg that put strain on her exhausted muscles running thick with lactic acid, her legs most of all as she stood. Then she collapsed again to the hard, cold rocky bottom again, her legs simply crumpling underneath her. She gasped in pain, touching the burnt skin. Pain stabbed where the tip of her finger had touched. Kneeling in throbbing pain, she struggled to grasp a reason to try again. She was hungry, fatigued and exhausted. What reason was there to even try to climb up to the entrance?

Then she looked at the egg sitting in her lap. She ran a hand over the surface, smooth but slightly course. It was a pale ruddy brown colour from what she could make out in the poor lighting, but had a tinge of another colour to it. Slowly running her hands over it aimlessly she sighed in resignation. A tiny smile lifted a corner of her mouth, and she stood, cradling the egg tight as she dared. And she climbed up the rocks with one hand, finally clambering through the mouth after a few minutes of slow, painful exertion. Outside it had lightened a little more, the horizon a clear rich blue, fading upwards and into dark blue, then an even darker shade. A few stars were even eminent in the sky. The sun hadn't peaked out yet. Anaya was glad to see there were no more clouds, except for one small one.

Then she looked about at the wreckage around her.

Black trees were stripped of leaves and many branches; ash littered the ground, swathing her shoes and legs as she walked. The boulders nearby were scorched black. Bodies of Pokemon lay here and there. She threw up.

When she was finished she looked about a bit, a little confused. It didn't look like it had rained; yet there was no signs of the fire still roaring around. She looked at the sky again out of pure speculation and her spirit fell. That one tiny little cloud was growing again and stretching closer. But luckily it wasn't a storm cloud, she could tell. Lucky? Maybe not.

Minutes later she found herself wandering aimlessly in a black and blue wonderland of emptiness. The life from the forest was gone all the way to the horizon toward which she treaded, where there lay a thin line of greenery. About half an hour later it was raining. It started off heavy at first, but didn't last very long, slowing to light drizzle that went on for the rest of however long Ayana was awake.

Hours later she was thoroughly soaked, tired and every part of her body screamed for release. The egg was like a lead weight in her arms, and every time she shifted the weight they felt like they were falling off. It was like when she played sport at school, she never knew how spent she was until she stopped. She was practically asleep on her feet, her eyes remaining closed most of the time, opening only to make sure she wasn't about to run into a tree. Her steps were a rhythmic pounding on the damp ground, the grey ashes now plastered to her legs, as well as the stray small leaf blown over from the areas where the fire hadn't destroyed all. She was constantly shivering, her teeth chattering with cold. She hadn't expected it to rain, not in the summer. Well that's what you got in Sherwood. More cold than hot, its weather was as unpredictable as a winding mountain river.

Her attire didn't help. In a short denim skirt and a thin wet white shirt that would have been as much use off as it was on she wasn't a happy camper.

Then, out of the mist and drizzle, rose a grey shadow in the distance, flitting it's way through the trees. A flame burned at it's chest, and in her sleep-deprived state she couldn't make it out through her teary, blurred vision and simply stared at it, awed, in wonder. A feeling of security, peacefulness washed over her, and the white day went black.


	2. The call

**Anywhere but home**

Chapter 1

Ayana sniffed. No fire. She didn't smell fire. It was the first thing she thought of the moment she was conscious. She felt slightly damp though.

She opened her eyes. The tops of trees loomed above her, silhouetted against a deep blue sky. Stars flickered down at her from the clear sky, bright and beautiful. Momentarily transfixed by them, she didn't notice the presence sitting nearby, just out of her view.

"Seems infinite doesn't it?" Ayana jumped with surprise, sitting up instantly, jerked out of her speculation. She was sitting in a sleeping bag, her sleeping bag, and wore an unfamiliar red hooded jumper that was so big it fell right over her denim skirt. She was in a small clearing, cold in the night without a campfire. Her bag lay nearby, next to a larger bag that she didn't recognise. Then her eyes settled on him. A small sleeping Pokemon lying at his feet, he sat on a rock staring up at the sky. She couldn't make out much of him in the dark, but she could tell that he was tall, from the size of his dark form and the size of the jumper, obviously his.

He turned to look at her and smiled in a friendly manner, thrusting an outstretched hand toward her. "The name's Andrew." She blinked and hesitated, a seed of suspicion settling in her stomach before shaking his hand.

"I'm Ayana." She murmured in reply, surprised at her own quietness. Normally she was rather loud and not shy at all, but this time was different. Maybe it was because she was a little tired.

"Well, y'know you've been sleeping for eighteen hours?" Andrew asked.

"No, I didn't know that." Ayana said, feeling her sardonic nature surface. She tried to calculate an estimate as to what the time was, but quickly gave up.

"It's about 4:30am." He stated, as if reading her mind. She looked at him pointedly, choosing not to reply. "Well. You hungry?" Her stomach groaned, speaking for itself. She clasped a hand over her belly and grinned weakly, an eyebrow raised slightly.

"How did you know." She said flatly.

"Why, a guess." He said in an odd tone of voice, and she thought it sounded almost poetic, but she dismissed it. Right now it wasn't an issue.

He moved over to his bag and slid a hand in, not moving about much for a moment before emerging victoriously with a torch. With a flick it spewed out light into the darkness, and Ayana could see him properly. Light skin was tinted gold, dark orange hair shone with gel. His eyes were light blue. They offered her a fleeting look before he turned away to look in his bag again. She looked him over. He wore a new-looking navy blue dress shirt with short sleeves and baggy jeans that appeared worn; a strange combination she thought. He turned and dumped three fruit straps into her hand. She noticed bandages wrapped around her wrists, where the burns were.

He noticed where she was looking and cleared his throat a bit. "So you were near that fire were you?" He asked, running a hand through his hair casually. Ayana glared at him.

"Obviously." She gritted her teeth and they ground together.

"Woah, don't have to jump all over me." He laughed slightly and she raised an eyebrow. There was movement nearby, and she turned to look down. Andrew's Pokemon was rolling around and kicking a leg randomly. It emitted a small grunt and then lay still. Andrew shone his torch over it to reveal a small red creature, a Burnnie. Ayana knew it well from her research. The fire type starter Pokemon of Sherwood, it was like a small rabbit-like thing, with the small fluffy tail and long front teeth that bit over it's jaw, but the head looked kind of like that of a bear.

Andrew reached over to pick it up, holding it like a baby and rocking it gently as if it were one. "This is Jo, my first and only Pokemon. Got her about a month ago from Dewtown when I started my journey." Ayana's eyes flicked from the small fire pokemon to him.

"You only left a month ago? How old are you?" She asked almost incredulously. He looked to her to be about sixteen or seventeen.

"Eighteen this year." He noticed her surprised look and continued quickly but not hastily. "I wasn't exactly one of those people who wanted to just go and train pokemon, I finished high school last year and decided to do this during my gap year while I decide whether or not I'll go to uni."

"Ah." Ayana commented, not fully satisfied with the explanation but in no mood to complain.

"So how old are you?" Andrew asked. She hesitated before replying out of sheer secretiveness.

"Sixteen this year."

"I noticed you don't have any pokemon. Were you heading to Dewtown to get one?" Ayana's mind raced immediately. Was it suspicious for her to be travelling in the forest without a pokemon? If she said she wasn't going to get a starter pokemon what would he think? If she said she was… he seemed to her like the kind of person to be all polite and noble and stuff and he might even escort her all the way there! Where was she even heading anyway? She had no idea! Perhaps she should go to Dewtown…

"I'm sorry, do I ask too many questions? Just so y'know I'm not a stalker or anything." Andrew said, smiling laughingly. Ayana was jolted out of her thoughts and she stared at him before realising how long she had been lost in her thoughts. All this talk of starting Pokemon… She gasped as she remembered. The egg! Where was it?

"Where's my egg?" She snapped instantly, not stopping to think why she had called it _her _egg.

"Woah, chill, it's right here." Andrew cradled Jo and the torch in one arm precariously but utterly sure of himself and rocked back on his heels, twisting his body around at an almost impossible looking angle from Ayana's point of view for a few seconds before turned around to face her again, the egg cradled in his other arm against his body, half swathed in a thick blanket. Ayana breathed a sigh of relief and abruptly reached out and took it from him, automatically holding it close. "Ah, I see now." She looked up and stared right into his blue eyes. What was it? What did he see? "Were you given that egg for your first pokemon then?"

Possibility hit her, and she plastered on a fake smile and nodded in agreement, never taking her eyes from his. She hadn't much practice at lying, but she didn't falter. She didn't think.

The strange look Andrew gave her made her hopes fall, but the ordinary smile replaced it almost immediately, giving her the idea that he didn't notice. "So what's in it?" She froze. He knew, she knew he knew! Somehow she just knew he didn't believe that the egg belonged to her, and he was trying to pull her into a trap!

"Nope, it's a surprise." She replied quickly, a little too quickly, but as calmly as she could muster.

"Who gave it to you?" She was on a role now and spoke without hesitation.

"A friend of mine works at the Breeding Center in Shakup, my hometown, and they found this egg and weren't sure what it was. It's a pokemon daycare too, and they have lots of business, so it could be anyone's egg. They couldn't find the parents and he, being such a good friend and knowing how much I wanted to get a pokemon and travel, offered to give it to me." She explained smoothly, sure now that he would be convinced. Sure enough he didn't seem to give it a second thought, but continued the interrogation as it were. Only too late did she remember that the best lies were the simplest ones, not too embellished in details.

"So what were you doing wandering around in the forest with an egg and no pokemon? Looks to me like you were leaving home already, but shouldn't you have waited for the egg to hatch?" Andrew asked. By now she could pick out the slight differentiation in his tone of voice when asking his provocative questions as opposed to his ordinary speaking. Ayana had to think quickly for this one. She considered claiming that she was only getting to know the forest and getting fit with the backpack, but Andrew seemed convinced that she had started her journey.

"Um, yeah well, I was just so excited and enthusiastic about starting my journey that I decided to leave early." She covered quickly.

"But what would have happened if you had run into a dangerous wild pokemon? You would be putting yourself and the life of the pokemon in the egg in danger." Andrew said, his expression vacant and stressed a little with worry, but Ayana could tell the slight triumph in his voice. She fell silent, at a loss for words. She could pretend she was going through the shock of realisation or the truth, that she couldn't think up a good enough excuse and that he would likely eventually find out her true story.

Suddenly, as if to come to her rescue, her sister's mobile rang.

She jumped, breaking eye contact with Andrew and his penetrating gaze hidden behind the warmth that emanated from him and reached for her bag. She fumbled for a bit with the zip, not wanting to put the egg down, and pulled out her sister's mobile. She glanced at the number calling – it was her own mobile number.

"Hello?" She said, hoping desperately it wasn't one of her parents. She was happily rewarded with her sister's voice.

"Hey Yana, oh my goodness where are you? Are you okay? What's up?" Latty almost squealed into her ear. She pulled it away slightly from the bombardment before it died down. She chanced a glance at Andrew who, after being caught watching, turned away in slight embarrassment and instead began to pet Jo while she slept.

"Okay, slow down." Ayana said in a hushing voice, but tried not to sound suspicious. She crawled out of her sleeping bag and stood, her legs beginning to wander aimlessly, ignoring the dull throb in her ankle and the slight sting from the burns. She gradually made her way a few metres from the campsite. "I'm in Sherwood Forest, I'm all good apart from a couple of burns, and I've met this heaps rude guy who doesn't know when to shut up. Yeah?"

"You're burnt!" Latty's voice was close to screeching point.

"Quiet it down a little, you want me to go deaf? Huh?" Ayana snapped in annoyance at her younger sibling.

"Okay, sorry." Latty said, her voice a mere whisper compared to the moment before.

"Yeah, I did get burnt a little, but I'm good. Anything else you'd like to scream in my ear?"

"Is this guy hot?" Latty's voice dropped, and Ayana knew the look that was on her face. A playful, ready-to-flirt expression that pissed her off a lot, although usually it was pretty funny. However, she wasn't in the mood and mentally slapped her as she glanced back at Andrew. His back was turned to her and his Burnnie's red body looked merged with his similarly red hair. She didn't know why she noticed that in particular, and she smirked for no reason.

"No way, he's un-hot, and he doesn't know how to dress." She muttered into the mobile. He instantly looked over his shoulder, a look of mock hurt on his face.

"Hey!" He said, and she laughed.

"Just joking!" She said, turning to face away from him again.

"What's going on?" Latty snapped.

"Nothing." She replied.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well, would I go out with him?"

"Yes."

"Great! I want his number."

"No!" Ayana said in protective anger, even though she should have expected this.

"Why not?" Latty demanded, sounding almost like she was going to explode with outrage.

"He's too old for you!" Ayana snapped.

"What? And too old for you too!" She could almost _feel _the anger emanating from the thirteen-year-old on the other end.

"No." She glowered. "Why are you even _looking _for boyfriends? You worry about true love when you hit adulthood, Miss I-wanna-hit-on-every-hot-guy-I-see!" She heard her sister gasp in anger.

"Why you-" Ayana pulled the phone away from her ear calmly to avoid the expected train of colourful language, and when Latty was done she spoke blatantly.

"I didn't talk like that when I was your age. Now what's the meaning of calling me at what, five in the morning?" She confirmed her suspicions after a glance at the mobile clock. There was a confused pause.

"It's five in the morning! Woah, had no idea it was that late!" Latty giggled.

"Early, not late. And it's dark, shouldn't it be obvious? You're lucky I wasn't asleep. And… okay young lady, get _off _the coffee!" Ayana said in the tone her mother used to use when they were younger. She could imitate it almost perfectly.

"I'm not addicted."

"Yes you are you liar. And I won't say any more because I know it won't make anymore difference, but I'll just tell you mum and dad will have your head cos it's school for you, remember?" There was a moments' silence again, then Latty gasped.

"You are so right! Oh well, I'll have to bring more coffee to school to keep me up all day…"

"Okay, I'll let you go think about what you've done, you bad, bad girl. So goodbye until later. And off the coffee!" She didn't even wait for her sister's reply before she hung up and escaped more argument. She shoved the mobile in her pocket and turned to Andrew, who had swiveled around on his rock to watch her. "…What?" She snapped irritably.

"Oh no, nothing, nothing at all." He said, but didn't break eye contact as Ayana would have thought he would. They stared at each other for a few moments before Ayana realised the silliness of the unspoken staring competition and broke away, pulling the mobile out of her pocket to check on how much credit there was.

"So, did you have fun listening in on our little conversation there?" She asked with minimum expression, not really caring what he would say to her question.

"Of course, especially the parts about me. By the way, is your sister hot?" Ayana glared instantly as his face broke into a wide grin.

"I'm not saying anything!" She said, outraged that he would even consider such a thing.

"Well I suppose if she's anything like you she's gotta be." He grinned. She stared at him for a moment before the comment set in, and her mouth dropped open as if he had openly insulted her. She wondered why comments like that struck her as insults, when in fact they complimented the receiver. It didn't make sense, but she didn't stop to think on it.

"Oh… well… you're…" She trailed off, suddenly incapable of throwing something back at him. There was an uncomfortable silence, he exulting in triumph, she brimming with seething fury and embarrassment simultaneously, when the egg in her arms shivered and rocked.


	3. Andrew

Author's note: I created Ramtor, so please don't use it without my permission. Burnnie was created by a friend of mine, so if you wish to use it you'll have to ask him.He is Claricat-the-Majestic on see pictures of these pokemon and more? Visit my homepage, which is in fact my deviantart account, and dig through my gallery. They'll be early in the gallery if you're interested.

**Anywhere but home**

Chapter 2

Ayana almost dropped the egg in her fright. She caught herself just in time and jumped a few steps to her sleeping bag, which she knelt down on as close to Andrew as she could get without a thought of her previously unexplained frustrations toward him. "Is it hatching!" She burst out, staring at it in excitement and shock, however it made no further movement.

Andrew shook his head a little, his face thoughtful. "Eggs begin to move about a little when they're close to hatching. A lot of the time you hear little sounds made from the pokemon inside when they're hatching, or about to hatch."

"When do you think it'll hatch?" Ayana glanced at him after a moment of disappointment, rubbing her hand across the coarse surface.

"No idea. Soon?"

"Yeah, I already know that." Andrew nodded, shining his torch on the egg.

"Interesting, aside from brown it looks kind of purply." He said, then his eyes brightened.

"What is it?" Ayana asked suspiciously. He went for his bag, unzipping a side pocket.

"My pokedex is one of the newest models, and it may be possible for it to determine the species of pokemon contained in the egg from the elemental aura given off from it." He said, seeming to know exactly what he was talking about.

"…Eh?" She blinked, but he said no more as he withdrew a shiny red flip-dex, much the same size and shape as a flip-phone. He pointed it to the egg and pressed a button. The pokedex spoke in a woman's monotone voice, Ayana listening intently.

"Element of egg: ground/normal. Pokemon species matching elemental combination: Ramtor. Approximate amount of time before egg is hatched: 48 hours."

"What's a Ramtor?" Ayana asked immediately even as Andrew typed something into the pokedex. A moment later the flip-dex began to speak again.

"Ramtor are a very playful pokemon who are loyal to their owner and strong and sturdy in battle. They have the ability to speak telepathically with those that they are close to, but possess no further psychic powers. When they reach adulthood the fine fur on the plate of bone on their head will shed to reveal a thin, sharp edge that can be deadly in battle."

"It got a picture in there?" Ayana demanded, snatching the pokedex from Andrew before he had time to answer. He began to protest but stopped himself as she looked at the small picture closely. Ramtor was a pokemon unlike any she had ever seen before. It looked relatively large and well-built, kind of dog-like, a royal purple colour with a rich brown underbelly and a large brown plate of bone protruding from the top of its head. The ears were large with two points, reminding her of a Nidoran or one of its relatives. It looked very lithe and powerful, and she didn't doubt it could get up to high speeds. She grinned. "So this is what's coming out of this thing?" She asked, holding the egg close to her.

"Apparently." Andrew replied, taking his flip-dex back. Ayana sighed and huddled a little, before remembering whose jumper she was wearing.

"You want this back or something?" She blurted out, pulling at the sleeves.

"No, no, not at all, at least until you get one for yourself. It's cold, you can keep it on." He said quickly. She nodded, offered a smile and stood.

"I'm going for a walk. Don't follow me." She said flatly, turned and walked off. She didn't bother looking back.

It was beginning to get light now, a pale blue hue cast across the clear sky. She hugged the egg, subconsciously seeking to keep it warm. We wasn't sure however if it needed to be kept warm – some species of pokemon egg didn't need to be warm, some even needed to be cold in order to hatch! But Ramtor looked like a warm creature, so she hugged it.

Mist was swirling around close to the ground. Her legs were beginning to get sore already, and her ankle was starting to throb. She didn't know why it still hurt, when she had twisted it over 24 hours ago. But she thought nothing of it, choosing to settle down against a tree, the rough bark cold and damp even through her shirt and jumper, and pulled out the phone. She dialed a number and listened for the voice on the other end. $18.85 remaining. She would have to buy more credit soon.

She sighed and stuffed the mobile back in her pocket, returning to hugging her egg. She remembered the massive pokemon, charred black, and the roars earlier on. Had it been this Ramtor's mother, protecting her eggs against an invader? It was the only explanation that popped into her head. She pressed her cold face to the shell. "You poor thing, if it's true then you are indeed an orphan." She whispered, and thought about the pokedex description of Ramtor. The fact that they could speak telepathically to those they were close to allured her deeply. She wondered whether or not the creature inside the egg could hear her, much less understand what she was saying to it. But she spoke to it anyway. "I suppose then you could talk to your mother, you think?" She murmured. "Or are you even advanced enough to be speaking telepathically yet?" She wondered aloud. She sat and thought to herself for a few moments, then laughed out loud. "I'm talking to an egg. Things must be bad." She muttered bitterly, instantly feeling miserable. "I'm so screwed. I'm hanging with a guy I don't even know who seems to look straight through my lies, I can't go get a beginner Pokemon from Dewtown because I've already told him that you're going to be my first, and I have no idea where I'm going of what I'm gonna do." She paused for thought, then continued. "But how about I become your trainer, huh? How would you like that? And I can train you even though I'm not sure how and then I'll work out what we're gonna do next. How about that?" The egg didn't respond. Ayana slapped her forehead. As if it would, it was a bloody egg!

She stood up and sighed again, feeling so down her feet dragged along the ground as she walked. The mist and fog reached up for her in tendrils. The burnt, leafless trees looked almost beautiful in the grey and white and blue. She caught a glimpse of movement in the corner of her eye and she turned to it. She saw nothing, but then an image flicked into being in her mind. A tall grey figure, making it's way toward her, a flame burning at it's chest…

She recoiled from the memory. It had taken place yesterday before she had passed out… but what was it? She turned, eyes darting about as if the thing would suddenly reappear in front of her. She wasn't disappointed when it didn't – she hadn't expected it to.

She wondered whether she should go back to the campsite now. She started to head off, but then she realised that once again, she had no idea where she was. How far had she wondered? Every way she turned, there were just tall, charred trees, fallen logs, soil and stones littered with a thin layer of ash, most of it having been blown away or all over the place, and the fog that shrouded any hope of long-distance vision. Normally she would have felt panic, but for some reason she didn't. She fought the urge to just walk off in any random direction. That would be foolish, she could be walking further from where Andrew was. So instead she just stood there for a delayed moment before throwing her head into the air and screamed at the top of her lungs, "_ANDREW!_" She dropped her face from its position of facing the sky overhead, pausing for a moment before she heard a very faint call from somewhere far off. She didn't quite catch what was said though. "WHAT?" She yelled, and she heard his answer again, but she wasn't quite sure where it was coming from. She wasn't sure what to do, so she just repeated herself. Suddenly a howl erupted from somewhere about as far away as he was, then she jumped as she heard an answering howl, from much closer. Her heart began to pound. What did this mean?

She whirled in circles on the spot, sensing danger, but not knowing what is was or where to expect it. Then something caught her eye. A burst of flame, shot up into the sky, just above the treeline. Was it the creature that had been howling before, or Andrew's Burnnie, Jo? She stood completely still, not daring to even breathe. Then suddenly there was a low growl from behind that made her gasp with surprise as she spun around. There it was, before her. A poochyena. Her heart ceased it's pounding by a little, but her body didn't relax. There had been two howls, that meant there were more. The small grey pokemon glared at her through crimson red eyes, it's leg muscles tense as if ready to leap forward and take her down. She had no doubt that's exactly what it intended, yet it hesitated.

Then she discovered why. Forming a semi-circle before her, five more poochyena emerged from the mist like ghostly specters, red eyes glimmering with some unspoken desire. The first explanation that popped into her head was that of blood lust. Her mouth went dry. Then they shot forward to attack.

She took a short breath and automatically slammed her foot out at the nearest as it went for her, shock engulfing her the moment it was done as it took a blow in the jaw with a cry. She couldn't remember a time when she had even willfully harmed a pokemon. But then again it was in self-defense, she reasoned with herself. It was good enough. She lashed out at another less than a second later, but it opened it's maw, displaying a dangerous array of teeth and clamped down on her shoe. She screamed as sharp points stabbed into her upper foot through the shoe, the pair of much larger canines gratefully missing. A different poochyena snapped at her leg, another used a companion as a boost, propelling it into the air, jaws aiming for her throat. She leaned forward to evade it, claws instead raking her back but not getting to her skin through the thick hoodie jumper. Four of them went for her at once, and she twisted and tried to flick the poochyena off her foot, but it hung on tightly, stubbornly, much too heavy for her to slam it into a tree. As an array of teeth and claws and furry bodies assaulted her bare, vulnerable legs, her free arm reached out for support amidst all her screams of pain and fear, her right hand resting on a branch of a tree. All her weight instantly falling upon it, it broke after already being weakened from the fire, and she almost fell over with the unexpected shock. The dark dog pokemon barked and growled, some threateningly and some in triumph, two snapping up to try and pull her down. One seized the sleeve of the jumper, promptly tearing it; another latched onto a lock of thick, frizzy hair. She screeched as it was ripped out, the culprit falling to the ground again to shake it furiously like a small animal.

Rage and adrenaline shot through her body, and she raised the branch to bring it down upon the pokemon ripping at her shoe. It cried out when the previously useless stick, now a bat-like weapon came crashing down on it's head. It released the tattered shoe and retreated for a moment before coming back in force, but a little more timid than before.

Ayana lost it. She began to beat down on the dogs madly through a haze of pain, rage and tears with all the strength she had left, but the agony from countless bites and scratches covering her legs weighing her down so powerfully that her efforts were near futile. Her only protection was ripped from her fingers resolutely and she was left defenseless. Spots flickered in and out of her vision and she was knocked to the ground, a poochyena lunging for her throat. As she fell backwards the egg rolled from the tips of her fingers and the blue sky above her darkened and whirled, previously non-existent stars spinning fast as if caught in a blender. She was floating, then almost instantly was dumped to the soft rich soil. She felt it under her fingers for a split second, and everything went black, but for only a moment. Then there was a brilliant explosion of violet, and in her mind's eye she saw a flaming ball of red shooting out from the mist.

She tore her eyes open, broken from her reverie. The spinning ball of red catapulted through the air just above her face, followed by a surprised bark. There was a flurry of grey fur and pain shot up her arm, then the ravaging teeth were knocked away. She lay there, gasping in short breaths of air, it seeming almost unreal that she was actually breathing. A few seconds of recollection later she turned her face to stare at the scene sideways. One poochyena stood to the side nearer to the trees, licking an injury. The rest were getting their own back. Only one was growling savagely now, the rest whimpering at the beating they were receiving from the enraged Burnnie, her eyes flaming with the vivid excitement of battle. It was almost as if there was more than one of her. She was doing multiple attacks at once, biting, clawing, kicking, blowing embers from her mouth and the flames burning from her back billowing up every moment like a blowtorch amidst her furious grunts and snarls. Ayana found it hard to believe such a small, adorable little creature could do so much damage, but sure enough moments later the poochyena backed away, leaping back toward the trees. Jo seemed to bounce backwards to land at Andrew's feet, flames still literally dripping from her long, bloody ratatta teeth.

The mist had been blown away in the flames and the weak sunlight that filtered down from the trees, but that didn't stop Ayana from realising that it was indeed Andrew and Jo that had made up the ghostly specter the day before. She felt a little concord at being aware now of the previously unknown, but it was quickly dashed as Andrew barked out an order. "Jo, now! Flamethrower!" He bellowed, and even as the poochyena turned to flee Jo didn't hesitate in throwing out a raging inferno from her throat that shot through the air quicker than Ayana could think, engulfing the small pack of dark pokemon. The heat and the cries and the smell of burning made something inside her cringe, but she reminded herself of what they had done with the fresh wave of throbbing pain burning up her legs.

Gradually Jo allowed her onslaught to cease. One poochyena stumbled off, teeth gritted in pain. Jo started to pursue it, but Andrew stopped her with a word. The remaining five lay on the ground, unconscious or too weak to move.

"Stay, Jo." Andrew commanded, his face serious, calm but confident. Ayana's eyes widened as he produced five pokeballs from out of nowhere. "Pokeball, go!" He said triumphantly, and threw a pokeball at the nearest poochyena. It was sucked into the red and white sphere without protest and a flash of white light, and the small ball didn't even rock or shake before it sounded with a resolutely _ping_ that indicated that the pokemon was caught. Ayana watched, entranced. It was the first time she had personally witnessed the capture of a pokemon, and it seemed almost unreal to see a creature just disappear into a pokeball like that.

As she watched, Andrew captured the other four pokemon. Only one managed to break out once, it's chest heaving with the effort, but Andrew caught it with another ball anyway.

Jo came right up to her face and sniffed her gingerly, all the vigor and adrenaline seeming to have drained from her. Ayana turned her face away, closing her eyes to blink away the tears. Jo made a little grunt and Ayana allowed her eyes to flick open again.

"Can you walk?" Andrew's voice reverberated in her ears after the moment's calm silence. It took her a few seconds to comprehend what he had said, but she spoke before she reached that point.

"Where is it?" She mumbled, barely sure of what she was even saying. Her voice was harsh with the dryness in her mouth and throat, sending her into a fit of coughing.

"Right here, I have it." Andrew said, and she spied him holding the egg out of the corner of her eye. She weakly attempted to lift a hand, but all her energy was gone.

"Give it to me." She murmured. He ignored her statement and answered it with a question.

"Can you walk?" He asked.

"No, I'm dying." She spat indifferently. Andrew was taken aback, but he quickly recovered.

"Don't be like that, you're not dying and you're not going to die anytime soon. Here." He put the egg down carefully, took both her forearms in his and lifted her to her feet. New waves of agony spread all over her legs and she cried out smally as she stood, but she bit her lip defiantly even as her knees buckled and Andrew caught her to keep her up. She looked down and her head swam. They were absolutely ravaged. The skin was torn in so many places she couldn't count, blood running down her legs in long streams, smudged in many places. She felt sick, but strangely detached from it all. She tried to force herself to ignore the pain as it came back in full but she just couldn't. It just hurt so much.

"Come on, you alright?" Andrew asked, unsure as he slowly, slightly tried to get her own her own feet again.

"I can – I can't…" She stumbled, tears choking her and streaming down her face. He lowered her to the ground again so she could lie down, and after a moment placed the egg in the crook of her arm. Her other hand covered her face and she struggled to contain her sobs.

"…I'm sorry. I'll be back in a minute, wait here. Jo, stay with her." Ayana felt him still standing there a moment longer, and replayed his voice again in her head. He had sounded like he was warring with himself over whether to be embarrassed or all calm and heroic and stuff. Why did guys never know what to do when someone cried? It confused her. Then he was gone.

She just lay there, trying to cope with the terrible throbbing, when she felt Jo nudge her gently. She flinched and removed the hand from where it had rested over her eyes. She turned her head to look at the small red pokemon. "Ni." Jo simply stated. Ayana stared into the pokemon's black eyes. She wasn't sure what to say and think until the words just dribbled from her mouth.

"You really kicked arse out there." She said, not bothering to put in any expression in her voice. Jo seemed to understand, and a look came across her face that surprised Ayana. It was a look of pride.

Less than a minute later Andrew returned with both their things and, after a few moments of rummaging through his bag, pulled out a bottle of water and a first aid kit, out of which came cotton wool, bandages and a bottle of disinfectant. He looked at her a little nervously and she immediately knew it was going to be a long day.


	4. Macario

**Anywhere but home**

Chapter 3

An hour later and the stinging pain, a result of the disinfectant, was just bearable. Ayana hoped the baby Ramtor could indeed not hear what was said outside it's shell, because she wouldn't have wished it upon anybody to hear her screams and curses thrown out into the forest. Andrew had started the job, but after being told multiple times that he was going to die he resolutely allowed her to snatch the bottle and cotton buds and the rest of it from him and she did the rest herself. "So I won't be pissed at you anymore than I already am." She had ground out through teeth clenched so tightly she was sure they were slip along and knock each other out. Better she do it than him. Now her legs were wrapped everywhere with bandages, and Andrew was pacing. Ten minutes he had been pacing, ten minutes she had been watching him walk back and forth, back and forth.

Ten minutes ago he had called up the nearest pokemon centre in Sherwood Forest, which he had been at before he had set out again the day of the fire. It was the only pokemon centre in the forest. He had told her of how he had stayed at it for over half a month, training Jo. He wasn't one of those trainers who traveled about seeking badges and the title of a pokemon master.

So now thanks to her uselessness some guy kind enough to help out was on his way with one of his pokemon to pick her up. Andrew would have to walk back. Ayana should have felt guilty, but right now she cared not a bit. All she did was sit there and seethe. She was so angry. The pain made her angry. She was angry at the poochyena for attacking her. She was angry at herself for being so stupid as to wander off by herself and manage to get lost and she was angry because she was angry at Andrew for no good reason. And something else she didn't understand. Why had Andrew caught the five Poochyena? They had hurt her, and had he exploited that to capture them. It took all her will not to ask him why. She knew that would only result in her yelling at him, considering her state. It always happened, she would take out her anger on other people. Although right now he was a very worthy target, for some reason she couldn't bring herself to do it.

But she really wanted to know what exactly was going on. "Why – the hell – did you catch those poochyena?" She demanded, her tone low and quiet yet a scowl echoed her thoughts as it found a place on her face. Andrew halted and turned to her. His eyes were full of some emotion she wasn't at all sure of. He noticed her expression but kept his own strangely neutral. Ayana took a deep breath, almost expecting an outburst of his own to defend himself against her unspoken rage.

She was unusually mistaken. "I may keep one for myself, otherwise the others I can trade for one that I will train, and as a companion for Jo. It's about time I got myself a new pokemon anyway, seeing as I've been a month with just one." Jo grunted with affirmation, bounding up very rabbit-like to his feet. She looked at Ayana, her facial cast darkening slightly at the look she held for her trainer, but she still seemed to hold some respect for her.

"But if you trade them all, you'll be left with a whole team. Would it be wise to take on so many pokemon to quickly?" Ayana asked, her anger receding a little, curiosity acting as a replacement. Andrew held his hands behind his back, tightly clenched in an almost polite pose, but she wasn't too sure. She was beginning to feel weary of him. Almost scared.

"I could always sell them, or trade them all for a very rare or powerful pokemon. There are other choices I could make you know." Ayana was lost for words. Her trail of thought suddenly just tumbled off the edge of a mental cliff. As Andrew stared at her his gaze softened a little. There was a short silence and he spoke again, clearing his throat first. "So, I wonder who's going to come an pick you up."

As if on cue, a shrill whinny cut through the chill morning air, and the sound of hooves was heard. Andrew stood straight, an annoyed look playing across his darkened face. "Oh, not him…" He trailed off flatly.

"Who?" Ayana demanded from the ground where she sat. "Tell me!" She snapped when he didn't reply. There was the neigh again. Andrew gave Jo a grave nod and she nodded in reply, throwing back her head and sending a ball of flame rocketing into the sky. Hooves drums on the earth heavily, and Ayana could feel the vibrations beneath her fingers. Andrew leant her a hand to help her up and she managed it with a lot of difficulty. He picked up the egg.

"Would you like me to take it for now?" He asked, and suspicion and refusal immediately welled up inside Ayana. Why did he offer to take it? For all she knew he could just take off with it. He had all his things and pokemon with him right now, he could just run away, taking her egg with him!

These thoughts fueled her sudden rage. "What is your problem! All you do is be all protective and caring and stuff and that's all good but you're treating me like I'm stupid and weak! Like, I _can_ do things for myself you know! Oah!" She abruptly snatched the egg from Andrew's hands, hugging it to her body protectively and slinging her bag over her back just as a majestic figure seemed to fly into the little clearing. It landed, huge and beautiful. It tossed it's head back with a snort of proud indignation, the huge fiery mane billowing and spouting flames, the tail equally as impressive, a plume of fire escaping from the creature's rump. Red eyes burned out from pale creamy horsehair, huge and fierce. It stamped a single diamond-hard hoof on the ground, causing an audible thump. Ayana was breathtaken. Here before he stood a magnificent Rapidash. She had never seen one in real life before, and she was so awed she didn't realise that Andrew was speaking to the other young man sitting in the black saddle on the huge horse pokemon's back. She glanced up at the mention of her name and they both turned to her. It took a moment to realise Andrew had just introduced her.

"Hi." She said quickly, a neat word spoken curtly. She was glad she hadn't just blurted out some lame greeting – that would have made her seem an idiot. The idea of staying silent to _not_ blurt out a lame greeting had flitted through her head she had dismissed it at the last moment. She looked at the newcomer. He was tall, but not quite a tall as Andrew; his skin was slightly tanned and his hair was a dark brown, thick and wavy. He wore baggy black denim jeans and a shirt as red as his rapidash's flames, and light brown eyes shone through hair gone astray with some kind of bright fervor.

His eyes swept over her. He looked at her disheveled frizzy hair with reinforced frizziness because of the water, the huge red jumper, the dry blood and dirt smeared everywhere, and he broke into a good-humored grin. "So you like it rough eh?" Ayana automatically went to hurl insults at him, but nothing came out. She blinked once and a blush rose up on her cheeks and she let out a small laugh. Inside she was incredulous. Some random just rocked up and made a sexual joke and she laughed it off after all that had happened! Her good opinion of him was immediately diminished, but she somehow couldn't find the words she felt she needed to say to him. Perhaps it was just common courtesy, although she had never struck herself as polite.

"Ayana isn't it?" She smiled in fakery and nodded. He gave the Rapidash a light pat to the neck. "Come on girl. Just this once." The fire horse snorted indignantly but obediently lowered her body to the damp, dirty ground with obvious distaste. "Hop on." The guy grinned at Ayana with a side expression she didn't look at for long enough to define it and patted the spot behind him. Only then did she realise that there was another saddle strapped behind his. She wasn't sure how that worked, or how safe it would be, but she treaded painfully over to it nevertheless. He noticed the egg in her arms. "Hey, maybe it would be better to leave it with him for this." He indicated to Andrew, who was standing there tense and expressionless. Ayana said nothing and defiance was hot on her lips but when this guy said it, it made everything seem so clear and obvious. If she took the egg with her now it would endanger it and possibly themselves. She looked at Andrew and silently handed it over. He took it with care. She had too much pride to apologise.

She mutely settled into the saddle, slid her feet into the stirrups and gasped in surprise as the warm fire pokemon stood. She let off such an intense body heat that Ayana felt almost uncomfortable. She almost fell from where she sat, stabilizing herself by having to grip the guy's shoulders.

"Woah there partner, you better hold on tight or you'll be gone before we've gone a few meters!" Ayana believed him. She wasted no time in wrapping her arms around his waist, but only lightly. She could almost feel the… was it triumph? Resonating from his body in all the closeness. He turned his head toward her a little, a husky smile evident on his face, "This is Springdance by the way. And I'm Macario." She barely had time to think about the different names, unusual to her, before they were suddenly propelled forward into the air. She lost her breath in shock and hot, fresh pain shot down her legs as they instantly tightened around Springdance's body and her arms clenched around Macario in a vice-like clamp. She got a mouthful of thick hair and choked on it while catching a glimpse below her. Her stomach lurched, the ground rushing up to meet them. She squeezed her eyes shut, spitting hair from her mouth.

It was a very rhythmic ride. A single drum of hard hooves impacting the ground, a second or two of stomach-lurching mid-air suspension, the same familiar drum again. She dared not open her eyes, but near the end she began to feel more secure despite the pain. She tried to concentrate on the buffet of the wind in her hair. It seemed to make it a little better.

Then they stopped.

She wasn't prepared for it and after those few minutes she guessed of regulating her body weight in a certain pattern the sudden stop sent her rocketing harder than she would have intended in Macario's back. He barely shifted however and she cried out in surprise as it sent her swiftly sliding down Springdance's side.

"Woah, hold up there!" Was the reply to her "Gah!" of surprise turned sarcastic annoyance and Macario managed to grab her arm and hoist her back up. She bit her lip against the sharp pain, biting back the tears stubbornly. No way was the going to cry now as she dashed the wetness from her eyes.

Macario swung a leg to the left and climbed down with ease. Ayana tried to imitate his moves but failed miserably as she struggled with the pain and her spinning head and the butterflies in her stomach and her induced fear of the suddenly perilous height at which she sat in relation to the drop to the ground on unsteady legs. Her teeth ground deeper into her lower lip. She feared she would taste blood in a moment. "I'll catch you!" Macario held out his arms invitingly, his face calm, which seemed strange in her eyes but she didn't really register it at the time.

"Promise?" She called automatically, reasoning with herself that if he didn't catch her she'd have resolved to bash him, though she doubted she could have.

"Yep!" He said, and she let herself drop. It took a great deal of will as her faith in him wasn't very confident, but he caught her around the waist and almost dropped her, her feet just hitting the ground as he held her up to reduce her full weight on her legs before he slowly set her down completely. She stumbled and almost fell over again, her legs near wobbling like jelly. It was only then that she realised that she ached all over. Her arms ached from holding on, her bum hurt horribly, but her legs were the worst, not only did they throb as usual but many of her cuts and bites were bleeding again through the bandages, those of which had reduced the chaffing somewhat but she still felt it. She dimly wondered why she hadn't changed into some pants prior to the ride.

She thought Macario was staring at her and focused him with a swift flat glare, adjusted her skirt and looked around. Before them was a large white brick building standing next to the road, a large red 'P' up near the point of the roof of the two-story building. A part of it looked rather old, suggesting most of it had been built on as extensions. "Well here we are, the pokemon centre." Macario stated generally, gave Springdance a good rub and a pat to the neck, recalled her into her pokeball and led Ayana through the wooden double doors. They stepped straight into a hall, the walls white and the floor mostly carpeted with fuzzy blue carpet, a section of it brown floorboards wide enough for five people to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. The floorboards gave the look of a wall-less corridor with rooms leading off it – swinging double doors that led to the kitchen, a doorway to the infirmary, the male bathrooms and female bathrooms, and another doorway leading to someplace else Ayana didn't know about. Half of the hall was filled with plywood fold-up tables with blue plastic chairs set up around them, the other half was empty except for a couple of gas heaters that weren't on. Clustered on the cleared floor were a number of mattresses, sleeping bags and pillows as well as travel bags, some packed neatly, and others with items of all sorts strewn across a bed or a patch of carpet.

But it was all the trainers that caught Ayana's attention mostly. That and the pokemon wandering around as well. There were only about five other trainers aside from she and Macario in the hall, four of them sitting at the same table conversing over bowls of cereal while another, a young girl, sat at a table by herself with a serving of porridge and a book. A weedle was curled in the chair next to her.

At their entrance, almost every eye turned their way. She went red as most lingered on her and gritted out, "They have showers here?" Macario's nod sent her hurrying to the bathroom, or at least trying to hurry, her legs slowing her down slightly as she tried to ignore the pain as well as ignore the trainers.

As she let the bathroom door swing shut behind her she let out a long, deep sigh. She felt publicly humiliated. She had never rocked up to a pokemon center in her life, and now she had just done it with no pokemon, impractical travelling clothes, munted hair, bandaged legs, dirt and blood. She could barely believe it.

It was worse when she glanced in the mirror on the way to the showers. She walked past, stopped abruptly, stepped backward, faced the glass and screamed. It wasn't too loud, but she regretted it instantly. However she didn't really think too much of it. She stared at herself. It was much worse than she had thought.

He hair was frizzier than she had ever thought possible as well as being matted with dirt, sticks and was oily, making it seem almost black. She didn't even want to touch it. She wanted to die.

The door tentatively opened slightly and one of the trainers peaked her head in. "You alright in here?" She asked carefully, one eyebrow raised in an elegant arch.

"No, no I'm fine, I'm good." Ayana said blankly, not bothering to look at the other girl for very long. "I'm alright, don't worry." She wanted her to go away.

"You sure? We like, heard and you scream and all and-"

"I'm fine!" Ayana snapped, anger rising quickly. It was all the other girl needed. She frowned and left. Ayana waited a short moment, glanced at the door again and began to unwrap the soiled bandages. Below her countless scratches and bites were encrusted with blood, some still bleeding. She frowned. Andrew hadn't done a very good job. Then she corrected herself almost instantly. More like _she _hadn't done a very good job. Then she changed her mind again. Andrew never should have let her do it herself.

She dumped all the bandages in the bin and inspected all the showers before selecting the cleanest after taking a pink soap left in another cubicle. She got first freezing cold water, then it gradually warmed and for a moment she knew the sheer bliss of a nice hot shower, but that was before her injuries began to sting. All stung, all at once, all over, and Ayana thought she had never felt such pain. It took her ten minutes to get used to it and for the pain to fade somewhat then she began the tedious task of getting everything out of her infinitely knotty hair. She had no shampoo or conditioner to wash it with. She hadn't thought about that when she had packed up and left.

Grimly she started thinking about what she had done. It all flashed through her head in an instant. She considered calling home and asking for someone to come pick her up, but then she started to really think about it. If she asked now, she might get away with it without as much punishment as she would if she stayed any longer. But if she stayed away too long if she changed her mind they might not take her back. She shook her head incredulously, shaking the thought from her mind. There was no way her parents wouldn't take her back if she asked… she didn't think. It would be humiliating if they turned her away. But then again it would be even more humiliating if she asked to come back and they allowed her to. They would chastise her and yell at her and she wouldn't be allowed to go anywhere. They would make her do homework and study all the time she was at home as punishment, and in an act of defiance she would fail something. Biology maybe, though there wouldn't be any loss there, she thought bitterly. And they would take away her Ramtor! That was suddenly what she dreaded the most.

But no, she thought as she soaped her legs to wipe away all the blood. She wouldn't call. She wouldn't go back. She wasn't going to humiliate herself, no matter what the cost. That's just what her parents would expect of her; to crawl back home crying and apologizing. They didn't take her seriously. They didn't think she could take care of herself, that she could make her own way in the world, much less go pokemon travelling all over the place in her endless array of skirts. So she would prove them wrong. She would push away the pain and strive on. She would wait for this egg to hatch, train the creature within and become good at it. Then one day in the future she would come home and visit her sister, and if she were brave enough, her parents too. But not yet – definitely not yet. And definitely not anytime soon.

She gave up trying to untangle her hair through her fingertips and gave one last look at it in the water showering down on her and got out. It was only then that she realised she had forgotten to tuck a towel into her bag. She felt like slamming her head on the wall and instead picked her way through her bag of things, searching for something to dry herself with. On the way through her task she became familiar with what exactly she _had _brought with her. A few singlets and shirts, three skirts not including the one she had been wearing, one pair of pants, a white plaited belt and a load of underwear. That was all the clothes. They took up over half her bag space. She cringed at all of what else she had. Which was barely anything. The only things that consisted of her other items were a water bottle, Latty's mobile, her wallet, a single black pen, a hairbrush, the mobile recharger, a couple of plastic bags and… and… That was all. She felt like banging her head into the wall again. No torch, no ipod, no food, no toothbrush… she was indeed unorganized. Or so she felt. She actually didn't know what things aside from pokemon items trainers usually carried around.

Ayana ended up drying herself with a shirt – the one she was least likely to wear anytime soon – and wore her sole pair of jeans and a random pink shirt. Then she got out of the cubicle and tried to get through brushing her hair. It was almost impossible, there being knots in literally every strand of hair. In the end she threw her brush into her bag in sheer frustration, almost attacked her own mass of hair then angrily pulled it into a plait. She knew it wouldn't come undone because she didn't have a hair lackey. It was too far past being washed and too messy and knotted to just slip out, but countless locks still worked their way out all over the place because all her hair was randomly different lengths. She frowned at it, not at all entirely happy, but it would do. She tied her white belt around the waist of her jeans, gave her shirt a final tug and left the bathroom.

It seemed that the hall had returned to whatever ordinary atmosphere it had possessed before she had arrived, and not so many people looked up this time, those that did looking very surprised at her transformation of being clean. She stood with a bag strap slung over her shoulder outside the door, wondering what to do, when she was saved when a lady in a pale blue and white nurses' uniform waltzed up to her and smiled sweetly, tossing her twin dark blue pigtails. "Hello Ayana, I'm Nurse Josie! I must say I've heard much about you and your unfortunate incident. I do hope you're all right?" Ayana went to speak but was quickly cut off. She was beginning to very much dislike this woman already. "I would be so kind as to offer your injuries be speeded up in the healing process, but I'm sad to say that our resident Blissey was unfortunately stolen yesterday! It's most terrible, in all the confusion with the fire and most of the trainers out trying to help, someone stole into the infirmary and took her and the injured pokemon as well!" The nurse's cheek flashed pink with anger, then the colour faded as her expression saddened. "Oh, but why am I burdening you with this? Please, come into the kitchen and I'll get you something to eat if you like." Reminded of food, Ayana felt a painful pang of hunger in her stomach and nodded numbly. As she followed the blue-haired nurse through the swinging doors she wondered. Who would be heartless enough to steal a well-trained pokecentre blissey that would have been needed to help heal any pokemon injured from the fire, as well as other trainers' pokemon? Rockets, some other mafia group? What if they were hanging around? What if they decided to steal her egg? What if-

"You're looking better." Ayana was jolted out of her thoughts in an instant and her eyes flicked up to settle on the tall figure in front of her. Macario. Leaning on a bench eyeing her and heaping porridge into his mouth. Ayana felt a tiny cat-like smile pull on her mouth. Where it came from, she didn't know, but she chose not to reply. Instead Nurse Josie presented her with a very welcome bowl of porridge, which she thankfully spooned in. The first spoonful she burnt her tongue and she resolved to proceed a little more carefully. Josie was muttering on about something before exiting the kitchen, and Ayana was content to just lean her elbows on the bench and eat.

Andrew arrived at the centre an hour later. By now Ayana had organised herself a mattress that the center supplied like all the rest, and a pillow and a blanket. When he had walked in the door the only thing that came to her mind was the egg, which she took from him quickly and wordlessly, only smiling a little in unspoken thanks. But she didn't really mean it. Something in her was still guarded against anyone and everyone. Those trainers staying at the centre that she had been introduced to by Macario she had only smiled and nodded to, ignoring the stares of some, then choosing to drift away to someplace else where she could be alone.

She paid Nurse Josie for a token to wash her filthy clothes, as well as Andrew's jumper for him. She felt obliged to regardless of how detached she felt from it all. He came and tried to talk to her at some point during the day, but she barely said anything and eventually he got up and went away while she remained sitting in the sole chair in the washroom, in front of one of the two washing machines. She spent the whole time it took for the clothes to wash staring into space and hugging the egg to her face, listening to the tiny cries inside, and the sounds of scuffling. She wondered how long it would take to hatch. She wondered what such a small, baby ramtor would look like, whether it would like her, what she would name it. She was counting down the approximate hours according to Andrew's flip-dex. Forty hours left.

When the washing was done she took it all out and hung it up on the line out the back of the centre. She paused when she was done, wondering what to do next, when sounds reached her ears. They were unfamiliar, yet she recognised them right away. A pokemon battle.

Ayana had never seen a pokemon battle in person, only ever on the television. She headed for the source of the battle as quick as she was capable of, excitement building inside her. She walked around the side of the pokecentre, turned the corner and looked upon the battle. She instantly recognised Macario at the far side of the road, Springdance locked in a deadly embrace with another tall creature, a charizard. Flames were licking into the air, great billows of the stuff coming from either pokemon. Springdance, standing on her hind legs was at least a neck taller than the charizard, of whom was raking with its claws even as the fire horse brought down her diamond-hard hooves upon its chest and body with neighs of rage that shocked Ayana, anger burning in her red eyes. The teenager owning the charizard was one she had met in the pokemon centre earlier that day. He had spiky gelled hair, and from what she recalled of him his eyes were blue and his name was Caleb. She found herself sitting down under a tree to watch the remainder of the battle, interest overriding anything that had been in her head previously.

Ayana could see both pokemon were beginning to tire, and Springdance's coat would have probably been thick with sweat if the flames weren't evaporating it most likely.

"Brim, get out of it!" Caleb yelled, panic obvious in his voice. The orange dragon had red splayed all down its front, and Ayana felt her stomach lurch. Macario in contrast was looking relatively calm, but his brows were knitted together in slight consternation. He shot Caleb a glance that suggested that maybe he should give it up. Springdance wasn't near as bloodied as her foe, her powerful flaying hooves knocking away any attack the charizard, Brimstone even tried to deliver now. The latter was roaring in a stricken way before it tried to back up, wings beating desperately, only to have its opponent bear down on it with all her weight. Brimstone was on the ground now. Springdance was completely rabid, leaping into the air and about to crash bloodied hooves into the body below…

In a second it was all over. Caleb raised his pokeball and his pokemon was gone in a beam of white light. Springdance slammed into the ground, her hooves digging deep into the torn up grass, now muddled up with dirt and blood. She flung her head back in a neigh of rage at the victory being stolen from her moments before, rearing up and shrieking, hooves flying. Then she danced about in a mad frenzy, ripping up the ground. There were two trainers standing at the door of the centre, watching with Ayana's own horrific stare. Macario produced his pokeball to recall the raging rapidash.

"She's really something isn't she?" Ayana jolted with surprise, whipping her head around to look over her shoulder. It was Andrew. Arms crossed over his chest, eyes guarded, he presented a very imposing configuration. She tried to stop her fast-moving heart, turning back to the finished battle, pulled her knees close and wrapped her arms around them, her egg resting gently on her thigh. "Sure is." She murmured in response.

Andrew came and sat down next to her, not too close. "But she's a bit blood-thirsty." Ayana let out a hollow laugh.

"She is."

"Isn't it said that pokemon become like their masters? Is he like that too? Something of him must have rubbed off on her, he _has _owned her for six years or so." Ayana couldn't help herself. She looked at him from where her chin rested on her knees, eyes wide.

"How old is he?"

"Eighteen."

"So he's been training since he was twelve!" Andrew said nothing to that. Ayana turned her head back forward. Macario was speaking to Caleb, the blond boy wiping the perspiration from his face with his hands. One of the spectators was approaching the pair, a questioning look on his face. Ayana had a question in her mind herself that she hadn't realised before. She glanced at Andrew.

"What have you got against him?" She asked plaintively. He didn't look at her.

"Last year my girlfriend dumped me for him." Ayana stared at him. The expression of profound sorrow on his face captivated her. Here sat a different, darker side to Andrew she would have never thought he had. He had seemed so kind a positive before, not anything like this. Something nagged at the back of her kind that maybe she should say something that would make him feel better, something nice, but instead, "Well you obviously weren't good enough for her," fell from her lips coldly, not at all how it was supposed to come out. He sent her such a dark, stony glare from his shadowed eyes that she was frozen in place. She didn't move, not even her eyes slid away, but his attention was only momentary.

"Thanks a lot." He growled under his breath. She barely heard his words but the meaning was eminent. She wanted to slap herself, but she found herself continuing to just stare at him. He wouldn't look at her. He just stared at Macario across the grass down the road. He was giving Caleb a pat on the back as the younger boy took off for the building, presumably to get help for his pokemon.

"Well," Ayana began, hoping to somehow redeem herself, "did you try asking her why?"

"Of course!" He snapped, then softened his voice a little. "But she just kept telling me that I knew why, I knew, but I didn't know, I didn't know what she was talking about!" His voice was bitter as he spat the words, and Ayana turned away. "Yeah and then the next time I hear of any of them they've broken up, and she wouldn't come back, just told me to go get screwed and forget everything!" Andrew visibly fumed as he subconsciously tore out grass by clumps. His nails were dirty. Ayana felt some sympathy for him, but not enough to offer any condolences. Talk of relationships had brought far too many bad memories to the surface. She felt tears in the corners of her eyes, but her loose hair would be obscuring her face from Andrew. It was lucky because she didn't feel like wiping them away. She just denied them until they went away, then she looked up again to watch Macario walk away with the trainer who had been talking to him, back to the centre. Ayana rubbed her closed eyes against the denim over her knees.

"Usually people who mistreat you aren't worth it. You'd do best to forget everything." She said gently, her voice strained, almost cracking halfway through the second sentence. Andrew didn't look at her, and he didn't say anything. They sat there for many minutes more, then he got up and walked away. And Ayana denied every emotion she was feeling.


	5. The Forest

**Author's note: **How long have I spent on this chapter! YES, chapter 4 is finally finished! And just for the record, there has been a lot going on in relation to the plot of this story, and it's no longer just a trainer fic, it's a bloody EPIC. Yes, an epic. You'll find out in later chapters. So don't be surprised if the title of the story changes, and the summary... once I think ofthose details. I'm too braindead at the moment, so it'll happen later. Yep. And yes, this chapter is very long. I hope it was worth the wait. Um... enjoy!

**Anywhere but home**

Chapter 4

It was before the dawning of the third day of Ayana's stay at the pokemon centre that she was awoken in the early hours of the morning in the dark. The day before the egg had increased in occasional shaking, Ayana's excitement had built a little more, but it surprised her out of her wits when the egg in her arms within her sleeping bag along with herself suddenly began to move. She had slept curled up around it the night before, but it had not made any movement during the night. The reason hit her instantly. It was hatching.

Or at least so she thought. She sat up in bed and hugged the egg to her, listening carefully. She caught a faint grunt. Her heart leapt frighteningly and she found herself up and stumbling to where she knew Macario slept. She almost fell on him in the near pitch blackness when she kicked his mattress, a warning something was in front of her, and she instantly knelt on the floor right there. "Macario!" She hissed, shaking the edge of his sleeping bag to wake him up. He answered her with a grunt. "Macario!" He grunted again. "Wake up!" Ayana snapped, giving him a good whack. "Egg's hatching!" He sat up to those words.

"Ayana?"

"Egg!" Macario groaned again, there was a bit of movement, then a blue penlight flashed in Ayana's eyes.

"Turn it off!" She hissed shrilly, squinting her eyes and furthermore holding her free hand in front of her face. The light passed away from her and she opened her eyes a crack.

"Into the kitchen." He said, getting up. She followed him listlessly between the tables and chairs and he switched on the kitchen lights before going to get the nurse. Ayana stood and listened to the grunts coming from within the egg. It made little tremors in her arms. She blinked, trying to clear her eyes, teary from the brightness. The kitchen looked so empty and almost foreboding in the night, and so deserted.

Ayana heard the clacking of heels on the floorboards outside the kitchen and turned just in time to witness Josie sweep through the swinging double doors clad in blue pajama pants, a singlet and stilettos with a couple of towels flung over one forearm, Macario following closely behind. Ayana would have asked what on earth she was wearing were her attention not so encompassed by the trembling thing she held. "It'll need to go in the sink." Josie said tersely, authority clear in her voice. She clacked over to the large sink and tucked the pink towel down into the contours of the chrome compartment before indicating that Ayana place the egg down into it. Ayana complied quickly but reluctantly, the tips of her fingers lingering upon the rough surface out of habit.

"The towel's for the mess, right?" Ayana asked dumbly.

"Of course!" Josie replied, fiddling with the other towel she held.

Macario was looking a little uncomfortable next to the two young women leaning in about the sink to inspect the baby Ramtor's progress. The egg was rocking more urgently now, the grunts becoming a little more exerted. He scratched the back of his neck. "Why hasn't it broken through yet? Can't we help get it out?"

Josie and Ayana stared at him in incredulity and horror respectively, Ayana hardly believing his stupidity. "Are you mad?" She gasped.

"Breaking out of the egg is the first crucial part of a pokemon's life! To _help _it break the shell, it would simply die!" Josie said, eyes flashing at him dangerously. Macario was cowed.

"Sorry…"

"I hope you remember that." The blue-haired nurse said darkly, and they turned back to the egg. The movement continued to slowly build in frequency until there was a gentle cracking sound, Ayana and Josie stepping closer and Macario using his height advantage to observe the goings-on over the top of their heads. There were no visible cracks but the grunts were now intermixed with shriller cries of excitement or disparity, Josie coaxing it to keep up the good work as she might a small child. Ayana soon joined in, her heartbeat ringing in her head Macario was standing nearby, leaning on a bench when two of the other trainers entered the kitchen to find out what was happening. One went back to get another, and then there was a small group crowding around the sink.

It was at least an hour later that cracks began to appear on the outermost layer of the egg, then not long after a tiny piece of brown-purple shell fell from the topmost point of the shell, pushed off by a tiny hump of brown. There were a few cheers by the spectators and Ayana would have felt a surge of jealousy, but she was so caught up in the moment that she gave a little cheer herself. Then all of a sudden the movement ceased, and she could hear the heavy breathing of the creature within. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Here it comes." Josie whispered and, with perfect cue in the blink of an eye, the egg seemed to convulse from the inside out and the outer shell quite literally shattered into a multitude of tiny fissures. Ayana jumped as the cracking reached her ears, and every one of them fell silent for a moment. As they watched, every attention single-mindedly focused, bits of shell flaked off easily to reveal patches of the violet creature within. She itched to peel the remaining pieces off, but she restrained herself, her nails biting into he palms in an effort to repress the adrenaline. As she stared, unable to take her eyes off her egg turned pokemon, the little purple creature bundled in the fetal position seemed to moan as it stretched out its whole body onto its side. It was over a ruler length in length from snout to tail, the latter being short and waggling, the nose moving up and down in an effort to smell. All four legs were a little longer than the tail, lacking claws and sprawling out into the towel. The ears were even bigger than the face and it was crowned with a short little horn. That and its underbelly were brown. It was virtually a short, pudgy version of the Ramtor she had seen in Andrew's flip-dex. She fell in love with it instantly.

There were cheers, exclamations about how cute it was from the girls while the guys murmured things to each other amongst grins. Josie was right onto the newly hatched pokemon, using the spare towel to reach down and rub the Ramtor dry from the embryonic sac and various other egg fluids. The unexpected movement sent it into a flurry of little cries that jerked Ayana's heartstrings. She gritted her teeth and tried to ignore it until it was over less than a minute later, then the little bundle was placed gently into her hesitant arms. Its body was covered with damp down, half dry now, and it managed to find her hair and bury its face in it.

"It's a he." Josie smiled, her eyes shining. She gave him a little pat on the back and stepped back for all those who were in the kitchen to fawn over the little Ramtor and a couple to offer their congratulations to Ayana, who allowed them to do the former reluctantly. Andrew was one of them. She hadn't noticed him enter the kitchen, but he spoke to her for the first time since the day before last and she managed to miss half of what he said.

After the well wishers minus Andrew and Macario dispersed back to bed, Ayana's first pokemon began to whimper and cry. Josie inspected him and looked thoughtful. "He must be hungry." She concluded, leading them to the fridge.

"What will he eat?" Andrew asked, asking what Macario would have inevitably although he was looking hesitant considering the last time he had asked a question.

Josie picked through the contents of the fridge on the shelves and withdrew with a little bottle of milk. "Milk of course." She replied matter-of-factly, placing the bottle on a bench and gripping the bottle top. "I did a little research on Ramtor last night. Turns out they're hatched without any teeth and minute claws, but their muscles are incredibly well developed. That's how they break out of their eggs – they're curled up so tight that they can barely move in there, and to break the shell they have to tense their muscles and stretch until they crack out from sheer strength." Ayana raised her eyebrows and looked down at the little purple pokemon with respect.

"That's really something." Macario commented.

"It is." Josie agreed while pouring the milk into a squeeze bottle, "And so if he has no teeth, he must eat milk, no?"

"Yeah." Andrew confirmed. Josie clacked over to Ayana and bid her bare his violet face. Unopened eyes tried to hide themselves but Josie let a little milk drip on her fingers and let him sniff it. He gave a timid little lick, then refused to have any, continuing to complain even louder.

"Come on Ramtor, what's wrong?" Josie chided, waving the milk around his snout. He continued to turn away, refusing to drink.

"What sort of milk is that?" Ayana asked, worry for this replacing her slight nervousness about how Andrew and Macario would get along.

"Miltank." Josie replied, frowning. "We only have one other type of milk… Valcinne milk."

"Valcinne? They're the pink goat things aren't they?" Macario asked in an amused tone of voice.

"Yes." He laughed shortly, paused, then laughed again. "What sort of weird inside joke's going through your head?" Josie calmly demanded as she withdrew a large milk bottle from the fridge.

"Nothing." He chuckled to himself, and Ayana and Andrew looked at each other. Josie replaced the Miltank milk with that of the Valcinne, squirted a bit onto her finger and positioned it before an unwilling mouth. He sniffed, gave a little lick, paused, then searched for the nozzle of the bottle hungrily. Josie grinned to herself and Ayana sighed in absolute relief. The nurse gave her the bottle.

"He can drink one of those every meal until he grows his teeth…but I'm afraid I may have to ask you for repayments for the milk. It's expensive." Ayana nodded, not really taking her words in.

"Here you go little one." She murmured, guiding his snout to the nozzle, "my little Keon."

"Keon? That his name?" Macario asked. She looked at him as if he were stupid. "Oh. Yes, of course…" He trailed off and grinned, ruffled her already messy hair and walked off. She stared after him as he left the kitchen, and ignored the look Andrew sent her. Instead she asked Josie how long Keon's teeth would take to develop.

"I honestly don't know." The nurse shook her blue head. "That wasn't something I found out, but I'd give it a week or two maybe."

"Okay." Ayana replied, holding the toothless infant close to her as he sucked from the bottle with obvious strong enthusiasm. With so many of his muscles so tense he was a lot heavier than he was as an immobile egg. Constantly thrusting his upper body upward in the air to get at the milk, she had to hold the bottle directly above him so that he wouldn't simply overbalance in her arms and fall to the floor, as she wouldn't be able to hold him that way. She had to grip him hard through his down in an effort to keep him somewhat still. She laughed, and Josie grinned placidly.

"I'm going back to bed if you don't mind… Just come find me in anything happens." She smiled, fingers brushed the Ramtor's coat lightly, and she gathered up the towels and clacked away. Ayana was left in the kitchen with Andrew and Keon, the latter of which now absorbed the majority of her attention. He had drunk all the milk. He yearned after the bottle after she took it away, and she couldn't help but give him a little extra; by her judgement there was a little more than two bottles worth of milk in the original glass bottle. When she was done she reluctantly handed Keon to Andrew to hold while she washed the bottle in the sink, dried it with a fresh tea towel and stowed the milk back into the fridge to prevent him wiggling out of her arms.

Ayana closed the fridge door and turned around to find Andrew trying to hold onto Keon while he bucked and writhed in his hands; he seemed somewhat unsure about what to do. She laughed and took Keon back, holding the warm body close and tightly to her, hugging him. His movement restrained, he gradually quieted down, then relaxed slightly. She smiled at Andrew. "Isn't he just the most adorable thing?" She said quietly, conscious of the people sleeping in the room next door.

"Yep." He replied, grinning in response. They just smiled at each other for a few moments; then, "We'd better get back to bed."

"Yeah." Ayana grinned, and they turned off the lights and made their way back to their own sleeping bags. Ayana kept a hold on Keon as she slipped in again just in case he tried to run off, but he didn't, even willingly crawling into her sleeping bag with her and curling up tightly, face buried in her side. That moment she felt such a surge of emotion blossoming inside her – the feeling that she owned something very precious, and she loved him and that feeling so much. She kissed him goodnight on his crown and slept deeply.

The next day was the busiest Ayana had encountered since she had arrived at the poke centre. She had managed to sleep through everything until 11 in the morning she knew because her mobile was in front of her when she opened her eyes, only to be thrown into a mad panic because the first thing she noticed was that Keon was not there. She had become aware first of the voices, the laughs, and then of the empty space where she would have been curled around him. Then she sat up instantly, looking around in horror before relief poured into her when she saw a purple thing rolling around on the carpet not far away, surrounded by Macario, Andrew, and five other of the trainers. Laughter drifted from over there to her, and she got the feeling she was missing out. Crawling out of bed and feeling very lethargic, she walked stiffly over to where the trainers all knelt or sat in a circle on the floor and found the source of their entertainment.

Within the circle Keon was a purple living sphere, legs and tail tucked up into a ball and ears pressed flat against his skull. He rolled from one side of the circle to the other, changing course everytime he hit a human wall, and everytime he neared someone they would put out the palms of their hands and give him a little push to keep him going. Several of them looked up at her approach; the din ceased once every eye was upon her. Some looked worried, as if she would bear down on them for playing with her pokemon without her permission, for not waking her up. They were right for thinking so, for that was how she felt. Left out. Her gaze fell on Andrew, then Macario. Macario had the decency to look guilty, though he hid a smile. Betrayed.

She forced herself to relax, the creases in her forehead ordered to smooth away. They were only having a bit of fun, and Keon was enjoying it. He had stopped rolling and now lay on his stomach in the circle, back to her, completely oblivious, his fat tail wagging from side to side in absolute glee. Ayana forced herself to say something rather than to just stand there looking cross. "Who fed him?" It was the first question to come to her mind amongst the muddled accusations and condemnations in her head.

"I did." The voice came from a girl about her age sitting in the circle, with blue eyes and light pink hair that Ayana found she couldn't stop staring at. She had come to the pokemon centre the day before. She had a bright smile and held out a hand cheerfully. "I'm Elaine, I don't believe we've met." Ayana accepted the handshake with a raised eyebrow and a glance shot at Andrew full of questioning about the similarity between him and Elaine.

"I hope he wasn't too much trouble." She said, trying to cover the dryness in her voice.

"Oh no, not at all!" Elaine said warmly, stroking an Eevee in her lap. The soft brown creature flicked her ears and wagged her tail delightedly. "He was very good." At this, Keon turned his whole body around and he spotted Ayana. Loping to the side of the circle she stood on, he looked up at her almost expectantly with large blue eyes. She gasped. When had his eyes opened? This morning? She dropped onto all fours next to Andrew, was let into the circle and Keon jumped into her lap with a high-pitched grunt. She slipped her hands beneath his forelegs and lifted the top half of him up to look at his eyes before putting him down with a hug.

"Oh Keon, you're so beautiful!" She exclaimed amongst 'aww's from the other girls, and she found herself joining in the playful games.

The rest of the day was a combination of feeding Keon, berating him over where to and where not to go to the toilet, and carrying him around sleeping on her shoulder. Ayana found that if she left him anywhere, with anyone she became paranoid about his safety. She wanted him to be with her all the time. She was often unwillingly drawn into conversation with other people, the subject starting off on Keon but then taking off to other places. Whenever the other touched on her life or anything that may lead them to the idea that she had run away she found some excuse to leave. Nevertheless, aside from the peril of revealing herself, she actually enjoyed speaking to other people she didn't know, and she made an effort to learn everyone's names. It was like Keon had brought a new light into the world for her, had opened her up. She received a lot more smiles and had never had so many laughs in one day for a long time.

But bad news came that afternoon with a call from her younger sister. "Ayana where are you?" Her voice was soft, as if she were afraid of someone overhearing her words.

"The Sundae Forest pokemon centre, why?" Ayana replied, apprehension looming on the edge of her mind. There was a pause before she spoke again.

"There's good news and there's bad news."

"Give me the good news first."

"No, it'll only work if I tell you the bad news first."

"What'll work?"

"Just listen. Mum and dad've gone to the police, of course, and they've actually contacted all the centres in Sherwood, just in case you've decided to go pose as a pokemon trainer." Ayana coughed as Latty paused, instantly knowing she was in trouble. "…Oh, you have haven't you?"

"Yep. Isn't it obvious?"

"Um… yeah."

"…Well, what's the rest of the news?" Ayana was beginning to feel impatient. If she was currently found out she needed to get away fast and her sister was wasting her time.

"The rest is that that centre you're at can't be reached… a couple of telephone poles in the forest were taken out during the storm and fell across the road… They're removing them tomorrow, but early in the morning they're sending a runner to your centre."

"Great."

"Are you gonna get out of there?"

"Of course. Thanks for the info Latty. So I'd better go and work out how I'm gonna do this."

"Okay. Be careful, Yana."

"I will."

Ayana cut off the call, slipped the mobile into her pocket, gave Keon a pat on the back as he nuzzled her shoulder and swore under her breath. The lovely afternoon was ruined by her suddenly darker mood. She had to get away, tonight. But how could she do that without sounding suspicious? Or she could just sneak away somehow. Everything rested on the choice she made. Crouching down on the verandah outside the centre, she held Keon and pressed her palm into her forehead. She didn't know what to do. This morning her life had changed, everything had changed for the better, and she was having the best time. She didn't want to leave this behind, but she had to… to keep it.

She had started a new life, and there was no way she was going back to her old one, not now, not when so much had happened. The very thought of seeing the looks on her parents' faces made her feel sick.

"You all right?" She jumped where she crouched, head whipping around to glance over her shoulder, a sigh of slight frustration working its way from her lips.

"Andrew, you have _got_ to stop doing that."

"Sorry."

"No, you're not, you're just saying that."

"Yeah, I am just saying that actually." Andrew scratched the back of his neck with a grin. Keon turned his head to Andrew's voice and let out a little sound without opening his sleepy eyes, and he received a scratch on the top of the head. "So what's wrong?" Andrew reverted the subject back to the original matter.

"Nothing, just tired I think… I've got a bit of a headache." She replied, not lying, just withholding part of the truth. She was indeed tired from the day's events and was building up a bit of an achy head. Andrew seemed to buy it however without much more than a sympathetic look and a kind smile. His mood had certainly picked up from the day before. It made her feel a little better, but not very.

"I'm not surprised, what with your new bundle of joy." He grinned, looking at Keon again. Ayana gave a "hmm" and they sat in silence for a few moments.

"So… where's Jo these days?" She attempted to make conversation.

Andrew laughed. "Jo? She's been off with this Cubtuwo some guy owns, I think she's taken quite a liking to him." Ayana found herself laughing.

"You serious? It's so odd how those two fire and water pokemon get along eh?" She was referring to the odd bond that existed between the two creatures Burnnie and Cubtuwo. Apparently wild Burnnie hung out near the lakes occupied by Cubtuwo just in case things got out of hand… but how they could help settle things down, Ayana didn't know.

"It is." Andrew chuckled again and grinned at her. In the instant of happiness in having a laugh with Andrew an idea had hit her.

"Hey, I reckon I might hang my sleeping bag out on the line for a while, to air it out. The stuffiness might get to me tonight." She laughed lightly, an attempt at making her audible thought seem unimportant.

"That's an idea. Here, I'll go get it for you."

"Please don't." She tried to hide her gratification at his kindness.

"No, I will." He got up and disappeared into the centre before she could protest any more. She decided against offering his jumper back… she was going to need it most likely. She grinned slightly. He had no idea he was aiding her in her escape.

Andrew even seemed to easily accept her wishes to sit around outside by herself for the rest of the afternoon on a patch of grass underneath a tree – she didn't want to be disturbed. She lay back on her bag full of clothes and went to sleep, being woken up in the evening by Elaine, telling her that it was time for tea. She went and had her food before returning to her patch, sleeping some more in her sleeping bag where she was with faith that Andrew would tell people to let her be. She enjoyed sleeping outside really, it gave her a feeling of going camping, like the happy times when she was little, back when her parents still loved each other. Every now and then she would get up to Keon's nuzzling and little grunts and make her way to the kitchen the back way to get him milk. She had been making her trips so regularly that by 9 pm she was absolutely sure that she could pass in and out of the kitchen without a second glance. At this time a peak into the hall told her that most trainers were up in the loft of the centre, socializing, playing games, whatever. Half the trainers had left off that day in a big group to move on, but Macario was still around, though she hadn't spoken to him much that day.

One quiet boy was sitting at a table reading, the only person in sight. She assumed that Josie was in the infirmary – there had been a few friendly battles that afternoon.

Ayana was undecided. Now could be the best time to leave while there was no one around, but later could be a good time as well, while they were all asleep. Either way she still had a job to do.

Going into the storage room, she carefully shut the door behind her and opened the large fridge. Bottles and bottles of Valcinne milk, just sitting there. Josie would probably later regret showing her where the Centre supplies were. Ayana worried over how long Keon would be on milk; he drank the equivalent of one bottle a day she decided. She tried not to worry. It didn't matter how long before he grew his teeth, there was only a certain amount of bottles she could fit in her bag. And her abundance of clothes didn't help except to wrap the bottles in to prevent them chinking against one another. She emptied her bag and carefully packed the milk, weaving thin articles of clothing between the separate bottles, as many as she could fit, then took out one, filling the remaining space with cans of spaghetti she found in the pantry. Spaghetti she didn't mind at the moment, but she was sure she would soon be absolutely sick of it and never want to see a can again in her life, but it was the best on-the-go food she could think of that was close at hand. She filled the spaces with muesli bars and slipped her water bottle, refilled, in a side pocket, the small milk bottle in the other. Baffled that all her clothes were in there without too much hassle aside from a few chosen pieces, Ayana zipped up her bag, tied her sleeping bag on top and hefted it up, aiming to swing it onto her shoulder. It didn't quite go to plan and she ended up pulling the muscle in her right shoulder with an exclamation of _"Shit!"_ and promptly dropped the weight. She clutched her shoulder as a stream of angry, hushed mutters shot out from under her breath and Keon romped over and nosed her legs, little cries of distress and curiosity coming from down on the floor. Ayana dropped to her knees and comforted him, whispering for silence, and he conceded when he knew she was all right. She held her breath for a few long tense moments, listening for the slightest sound of someone approaching, but she heard nothing. Slowly letting the air out of her lungs, she gave Keon another little hug and decided on a different approach. First she started with the sling she had constructed from a skirt, two shirts and her belt, slipping it around her body and glad for the padding she had made to soften the belt out of tissues and tape, and lifted Keon into it. He settled in comfortably, she having already tested it out on him earlier. She stood up with him and, readying herself sufficiently, used both arms to lift the bag onto a stool. Facing away from it, she bent her knees, slipped her arms into the straps, and straightened herself. Her back made a few little cracks and she winced. They didn't hurt but it made her paranoid she would somehow injure herself. Nevertheless, the bag wasn't so heavy on both shoulders, but she knew it would take a toll on her strength. She was glad she had had extra sleep beforehand. She went to walk out the door, then remembered. She produced her wallet and, after a moment's hesitation, took out her $200 and left it on the stool. It was the least she could do.

She left the storage room with a peak into the corridor and the kitchen and crept out, holding Keon's weight in front of her. A sneak glance out the back door, a jog across the grass, and she was at the fringe of the forest. She glanced back at the pokemon centre of Sundae Forest, up to the loft where Macario and Andrew were. She quickly left before she lingered any longer.

Ayana travelled deep into the night, following the well-used trainer path at a distance. She walked at quickly as she could without jolting Keon to the best of her ability considering the weight of the bag on her back, and she pushed herself to her limits, in the beginning stopping every hour, but then finding that she had to rest more frequently as she wore on into early morning. At 12:30 am, after three hours of walking, she sat down on a large gnarled tree root, slipped the bag off her back and leant back on the trunk itself, holding Keon and calmed her breath. Her pokemon was lucky; he slept.

Her feet hurt, her calves felt like string pulled taut and her back ached abominably. She had the thought that if she survived she would be close to incapable of walking the next day. She almost laughed inside.

She continued on into the morning, her body falling deep into the rhythm of treading carefully on the damp ground, the smell of wet forest ever present around her. She lost track of feeling and thoughts, everything in her head jumbled up into one, but always there was the overshadowing fear in the background of her mind that she would be caught. She still kept close to the path that led to Fizzton and planned to then travel to Colacity, intent on then losing herself in the masses of the largest city in Sherwood.

The thought inspired her, and she felt the urge to move faster as the sun began to rise in a clear sky, the rainclouds gone and exhausted. The cold had not bothered Ayana too much, though she had started out being so numb that she couldn't feel it anyway before becoming hot and sweaty. She had taken off Andrew's jumper and cuddled it around Keon just incase he was getting cold, but after a couple of hours she began dropping it every now and then from deadened fingers, paralysed from clutching it around her Ramtor. So now she was constantly flexing her fingers, and developed a habit of cracking them everytime she stopped.

Keon slept through most of the night, but now he stirred as it began to get warmer. Ayana paused to tie the red jumper onto the top of her bag to get it out of the way but had to support Keon more than ever because he had become a dead weight over her abdomen.

East of the trainer route it had begun to get a bit more rugged, small rocky outcrops jutting out of the ground every now and then. It was on one of these lower ones that Ayana decided to rest on to watch the sunrise, and also because Keon was beginning to nose and snuggle her for milk.

The sky slowly turned blue during that break, Keon sucking away at the little bottle, then demanded more when that much was gone. Though tired and weary, Ayana fed with a slightly renewed vigor, glad to be getting rid of some weight, though it was only being transferred from her back to her front. A moment of realisation filled her with a sudden dread. Keon didn't as of yet have control of his bladder. She tried to remember the times she had calculated the day before as to the amount of time that it took for him to go to the toilet after drinking. Between one and two hours.

So one and a half hours later Ayana stopped and let Keon out of his sling, for he had begun to squirm a bit, and after a few minutes of padding around seemingly aimlessely he 'went to the bathroom'. A minute later Ayana had cleaned him up and was about to move on when Keon suddenly looked up from the ground littered with leaves and twigs, paused a moment, then attempted to romp off into the forest.

"Keon!" Ayana gasped and quickly scooped him up before he could get anywhere. He squirmed and made a little grunt before she held him close and listened. She heard voices. She produced her mobile from her pocket and glanced at the time. 7am. Someone would probably be noticing about now that she was gone, if not already. She considered sneaking away in the opposite direction, but she was curious.

Careful to be silent as she could, she picked her way between large trees toward the voices, Keon clutched against her. She breathed shallowly and willed him to be perfectly silent, and peaked out from behind an expanse of thick shrubbery. She froze where she was.

Three young men stood in a small clearing as they pulled large black packs onto their shoulders. One kicked dirt over the remains of a campfire; there was a Graveler with them. The pokemon was huge, as tall as Ayana and just as round. It, a he she assumed automatically, looked formidable enough to frighten her astoundingly. She knew that she wouldn't stand a chance next to the men if she were caught, much less any pokemon. Not only that but Keon would be stolen immediately – he was rare enough.

Ayana stroked Keon's head gently, hoping desperately that he would not make a sound. He nuzzled her, sensing her tenseness, but she couldn't take her eyes off the Magma agents. She didn't dare. "So when'll we see these Aphralili things?" The youngest-looking of the three, maybe a few years older than Ayana asked, rolling a pokeball around in his palm idly. The eldest, his skin sun-wrinkled and tanned in contrast, looked at the young man sharply while pulling on a brimmed hat.

"You don't see Aphralili with that attitude, boy." He looked at the other like he were above him, while he loaded a long rifle. "A hunter is patient, he barely complains, he knows what he's doing. He doesn't get bored when there is so much to do."

The middle-aged man who seemed quieter than the other two spoke with a weary glance at the older man. "Chris, that Aurae chick… she always seemed bored when she returned from missions. She used to bitch to me about her superiors, y'know?"

Chris rounded on the younger with a fierce scowl that caused Ayana to flinch from her hiding place in the bushes. Rage burned behind his eyes, and his fists were clenched dangerously. "_Don't_ speak to me about that girl, Garten. Just don't."

"Why not? She's worth talking about. Pretty hot if you ask me. Pity she's a deserter," The young man absentmindedly mused, but a sharp expression silenced him. He climbed onto the Graveler, obviously belonging to him by the way he was helped easily up. "Okay, I'll shut up. Let's get on with it."

"That's the first time I've heard an ounce of sense coming from you, boy." Chris said darkly. "Try and keep it that way." The three Magma agents set off to Ayana's left before her, and she didn't move again until they were well out of sight. When they were she let out a stream of stale air as a result of breathing shallowly in her silence and hugged Keon in relief, so grateful she had not been discovered. Rising on shaky legs, she decided she needed somewhere to rest, to recuperate. Some distance from where she had eavesdropped she found a few large rocks with a gap between them hiding a little cleft of stone that fitted her. Relieving herself of her bag and curling up with Keon, she ignored the hard surface and was just thankful for the rest. She fell asleep thinking about the magma agents. Guns, talk of some rare pokemon she had never heard of… the two pieces of information slid together in a shock of realisation. They were poachers.

She awoke to Keon's nuzzling, looking for more milk. She carefully slid out of the cleft and stood up in the rocky crevasse, stretching her cramped muscles. She instantly regretted it. Her little sleep had allowed her body to become very, very sore. Keon continued to nuzzle and began to cry for milk. She quickly fed him to hush his little noises and spent a few minuets stretching, trying to ignore all the cracking of joints and pain in her legs and feet and checked the time. It was almost 9 am.

She sat and ate for a while after her stomach decided to rumble rather loudly, downing a muesli bar in three bites. While she dug into another one she watched Keon pick his away over the little bushes growing on the ground between the rock faces. He found a bit of grass and romped in it, large blue eyes looking widely around at everything, eager to stretch his legs. He was so cheerful and full of energy Ayana felt saddened and left behind because she was so exhausted. She comforted herself with the thought that she was giving him a better life… although the thought passed into her head almost instantly after that he would probably be better off in someone else's hands. Someone who had the money to give him the best possible upbringing, someone who hadn't run away from home and could be in danger of being hunted down. He should have gone to someone else, not her. She hadn't any experience in raising a pokemon; she would probably do it all wrong.

She almost cried at that moment, the overwhelming rush of hopelessness was so strong. Her limbs went weak and she rubbed her face with her hands, trying desperately not to let it happen. Then Keon bumped into her legs and she jumped from where she sat. He looked up at her, his little face so oblivious to her problems, and it was enough to make the tears real. She was so scared she wept out all the feelings within her, clenched her body so tightly it numbed the throbbing of her muscles and stuffed her mouth with a corner of Keon's sling so no one could hear her screaming.

She didn't stop until Keon started ramming her legs in distress, crying out in a tone akin to fear. It took her a few moments before reality set in and panic filled her as she tried to quiet Keon. It took longer than usual, and no matter her she rocked him and spoke to him he continued to cry. Ayana grew so fearful of someone hearing she almost hit him, but a piece of information about parents hitting their crying babies to shut them up stopped her just in time. She quickly poured a bottle of milk the best she could with her trembling hands and near forced it into Keon's mouth before he bit down and sucked the teat almost violently. Ayana hugged him in relief, so thankful that he was quiet.

She ate for a few minutes while Keon drank, and lost in her clamored thoughts of despair she jolted in shock when she heard voices. Instantly she thought it was the magma agents, but then she heard a feminine voice, and laughing. They were loud, and Ayana guessed there were four of them. She caught the sounds of various pokemon, rumbling, squealing, all sorts. Four trainers would have quite a vast array of pokemon, she mused. From their topics of conversation and the way they reacted to what each other said, they struck Ayana as younger than her, maybe fourteen or so. A pang of sadness resounded in her gut. These people were younger than her, yet so much more accomplished, so much happier, with so much more adventure in their lives. It brought fresh tears to her eyes, and she hated herself for it. She hated that she felt so sad, so left out. She desperately wanted to just move on and not mope, but it seemed impossible in her state. She hugged her legs and buried her face in her knees, keeping a single eye on Keon as he stood, ears pricked up at the new sounds. She caught his eyes and mouthed to him to stay quiet, willing him to not make a sound. He stayed silent, but she didn't trust him enough to not pick him up and cuddle him and whisper reassurances. She listened as the trainer group gradually made their way past her rock – they seemed to be walking rather slowly.

"…So what _did _you and that guy do after wandering off together, Jenny?" The male voice was laughing and suggestive and followed by a loud outcry.

"Ian! It's nothing of what you're thinking, and if you keep interrogating me I'm gonna bash you!" The girl snapped, and the scenario was so common and familiar to Ayana she almost laughed in bitterness for when she was young and innocent and stupid, everything from so long ago lost.

Suddenly her heart leapt hugely up her chest and landing in her throat, cold and hard. She could hear the pounding of hooves heading their way. She slipped into her cleft of rock, pulling her bag and took up Keon into the curve of her body to hide all evidence of her being there. Moments later, there was the snort of a rapidash and the pounding skidded to a stop. All conversation ceased, and there was a resounding neigh, powerful and challenging.

"Hello…?" The girl, Jenny Ayana presumed, said hesitantly, her companions saying nothing. Macario's voice struck Ayana inside with such a force that she clutched at her stomach, butterfrees whirling and striking her innards.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I'm looking for someone. Have you seen a girl around my age, about average height, really frizzy hair…" He proceeded to give a reasonably accurate description of her, and the whole time her heart continued to pound harder and harder with fear. The dark rock, formerly a safe place to hide, now seemed tight and enclosed. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her erratic breathing. When he was done the trainers told him that they had not seen her and he thanked them shortly before taking off again. The trainers talked about possibilities as to why Macario was so desperate to find her, then continued on their way.

When all noises of their presence were completely gone, Ayana slipped out of the cleft and shouldered her bag. Keon looked up at her and she picked him up and climbed out from the fissure of black stone. Keon wriggled out of her arms and insisted on walking himself, and she slowed her pace a little to allow him to keep up. She felt it a burden as she hurried close to the trainer path, but she was thankful for the lessened weight as well. She kept wary – the group of trainers was heading in the same direction as her, so she couldn't rush too much or she'd catch up with them, considering their slow pace.

She shouldn't have worried about it however, as less than an hour later she stumbled across the crossroad between Fizzton and Colacity. It didn't take long for her to make the decision – she was going straight on to Colacity.

Keon was making his way pretty well by the afternoon, though he had begun to slow down. The constant clambering over bracken and hills was tiring his little legs out. Eventually he just stopped and refused to walk any more, whining like a dog when Ayana kept going a few metres before realising he was spent. "You've had enough have you?" She smiled, reaching down her arms to lift him up, and he leaped right into her sweaty hands. She put him in his sling and went on.

A few minutes later he was asleep, and she was feeling rather good about herself, having come this far. She had been on the move for almost sixteen hours now, but it felt like forever since she had left the pokemon centre. Then a sound entered her ears that shocked her, yet there was something deep down that told her she had been expecting it any minute. The cry of a rapidash.

It was the sounds of a battle, and Ayana knew Springdance's wild shrieks when she heard them. She quickened the pace, hoping that she wasn't headed that way. The noise seemed to be getting louder, which worried her. Then she heard Macario barking out commands, but not the voice of another trainer. Ayana inferred that this was a nasty wild battle of sorts and took the opportunity to take off at a run. Her heart was ringing in her ears as she approached the scene of the battle, intending on passing by unseen. It struck her how ridiculous the situation was, but she was confident that she would not be heard. Springdance was in a rage by the sounds of her neighs, and whatever she was fighting was angry as well by the hisses and snaps. Then it roared.

Ayana jumped, it was so near and so loud that she clapped her hands over her ears with a scream that didn't make a sound over the massive roar that sounded almost metallic in its strength and ferocity. It ceased after a few moments, but the damage was done. It took all Ayana's limited strength not to fall over all out, but she sank to the ground and to her knees, somehow managing to stay sitting up to prevent landing on Keon or her bag of precious cargo. The Ramtor was crying, she could see him but not hear. Her ears rang deafeningly, and her head spun dangerously as she pulled herself out of the bag straps and, leaving it where it sat and stumbled toward the battle. Staggering through a copse of trees, she beheld the scene.

Macario was the first she saw, lying on the ground before her next to a black boulder, blood seeping from a wound on his temple. She could see a trail left from where he had fallen and rolled down a slight decline in the landscape. Beyond there, Springdance was rearing and jumping into the air simultaneously, flailing her limbs and shaking her head from side to side all the while, as if every moment she touched the ground she received a jolt of electricity. Her ears flicked uncontrollably, her red eyes whirling in her head, and Ayana knew she faired much worse than she did. Springdance was obviously off-balance, proven by one moment when she hit the ground and promptly staggered on drunken legs and fell over, rolling almost onto her back, all four hooves ripping at the air as she writhed. Ayana knew that Springdance screamed in her suffering, but then a bigger, much greater creature seized her attention.

Huge and intimidating, Ayana had never seen anything like it. It had the body of a snake, almost completely black and had to be at least seven metres in length and the thickest part of the great trunk was almost a metre in diameter. Great rocks of hind legs were thick and dragon-like in appearance, with claws as thick as Ayana's fist, and bat-like wings sprouted from just beneath the head and when spread in the air reached a length of about three metres, although they were charred and half ripped off, from Springdance's efforts or something else she didn't know. The sinew was ruby-red, as was the stomach that ran the whole length of the serpentine body. The head was reptilian mostly, but sported a large, dangerously powerful beak that was covered in the same black scales as the rest of the body. All up the back including the backing of the wings, the massive pokemon had the texture and no doubt the strength and hardness of the black rock that lay all over the forest, rigid and bumpy. Just below the chin a smooth flap of skin, the only soft thing on its body, inflated and deflated somewhat with its breathing pattern, a low whistle like a teapot shimmering it seemed in hot steam from its beak with every expelled breath of air. Its eyes were sharp and black, blacker than its scales, and only visible by the way they spun with rage.

Ayana had read about this creature once in a book, long ago, when she was small. She had always been interested in reading about pokemon, their lives, what they did in the wild, and this one had been stored away deep in the chambers of her memories for many years.

"_Obsidicide are like living fossils, few in numbers and exclusive to Sherwood. They gorge themselves with food before pressing themselves into the ground to sleep for years unless disturbed. In its hibernation, an Obsidicide will use up the fat reserves of its body to grow bigger and bigger, and when those reserves are spent, they will awaken to find more food. Every ten years every the populations of Obsidicide awaken to breed in the mountains, regardless of how much longer they can sleep." _Ayana stared at the flip-dex lying fallen on the ground, repeating the information over and over again in a loop. It took her a few moments to realise she could hear again, though the ringing was still in the forefront of her senses. But that didn't seem to matter anymore. All that mattered was she was in the presence of an immensely powerful pokemon – she could hardly believe it. But then when she looked up again, the great creature was advancing on Springdance, snapping its deadly beak and hissing. The Rapidash had somewhat recovered, staggering up and jumping away a few metres, trying to regain her clever footing. The Obsidicide was arching its neck, wings attempting at a useless flap, the long bony frame like sharp projectiles plunging through the weightless air. Springdance, her coat shimmering with endless beads of sweat, breathed a few balls of flame at her assailant, weariness causing her to tremble although her eyes were still fierce and strong.

Ayana suddenly realised the usual weight on her front was gone. She patted the empty sling, panic entering her, and she looked around desperately for her Ramtor. She caught sight of a flash of purple, and called to him. He looked up but did not come to her. She looked at Macario, unconscious by the boulder and glanced around for somewhere out of the way to hide him. She barely thought as she laid eyes on a large hollow tree and proceeded to slip her arms under his shoulders and used up the remainder of her strength to drag him ten metres to the tree. She ducked into the small wooden cave and pulled him in accompanied with a groan that turned into a cry of exertion from between her gritted teeth, but she got him in and leaning against the inside. She bent his legs so he was completely in there and slipped out, shaking with exhaustion. She looked at the battle. Springdance had earned a few nasty gashes, and the Obsidicide seemed to be almost toying with her. She still had a few minutes she guessed.

She half stumbled to where she had left her back and, unable to pull it onto her back, dragged it with both arms painfully to the tree, threw it in and went back and got Macario's things. She found Keon in the tree pawing Macario. "No baby, just stay here." She said tiredly, and found an empty pokeball clipped to Macario's belt. She unclipped it, aware that it was empty from the lack of the light glowing red. It was the only one he had on him so she assumed it was Springdance's. She hid behind a tree, went to a closer tree and peaked around it. Springdance's movements were slowing and her breath was so labored Ayana could hear it from where she was. Foam flecked her majestic body, her mane and tail burning low. Then Ayana was suddenly forced to throw the pokeball in an instant without thought when the Obsidicide reared up and shot its neck forward, quicker than a snake and twice as deadly. The pokeball swallowed Springdance into its depths just as the black bird-dragon seized her flank with the tip of its sharp beak and its jaws snapped shut with a loud snap, like a whip-crack. It snapped at the pokeball as it floated back into Ayana's hands, anger and bewilderment both evident on its reptilian features. It stood for a moment, air filling its gullet as Ayana stared at it from behind the tree, fear freezing her burning muscles. A red glow burned from within its air sac and its eyes pierced into her, cold and virulent. Ayana forced herself to pocket the pokeball deep into her jeans, just in time for the Obsidicide to expel every ounce of air in its sac and lungs, a deafening roar that would be heard throughout Sundae forest.

Ayana was immobile for a few seconds as she screamed, then her legs were moving unbelievably, and then she was climbing, the aching nothing in comparison to the incredible pain that bloomed in her ears. Her vision was fuzzy and spinning, her head hurt so terribly, her ears felt they were imploding with the tremendous noise.

Finally it stopped, and she almost let go on the branches clenched in her hands. She suddenly realised she was climbing, climbing higher and higher in a tree. She was higher than the Obsidicide was long, or so she thought from her precarious view and spinning vision. She was so dizzy. She threw her arms around the tree and didn't let go, waiting for the ringing to stop, the dizziness to pass. Her face was so smeared with tears it felt like grot, and the Obsidicide's shrieks of rage at her stealing of its meal were enough to make her feel she was having a heart attack, she was so scared. The tree began to shake.

She screamed and screamed for about a minute before it suddenly stopped, and she heard the high-pitched cries made by Keon. She looked down immediately in recognition to behold her little Ramtor running circles around his huge adversary, nipping at its tail whenever he got the chance. "Keon, no!" She shrieked, and started to climb down, only to have everything spin underneath her waveringly. She clutched at the tree again, waiting for the bout to pass. The pain in her right ear was so strong it sent a heavy throbbing throughout her body. A few seconds of recovery later and she forced herself to look down. The Obsidicide was insane with rage, chasing after the tiny purple pokemon and lashing out its wings and beak at him constantly, but somehow his reflexes kept him on his toes and in two places at once, he was so quick. Subtly he was leading the snake away from the base of the tree where it had been attempting to loose Ayana from her perch.

Forcing her eyes to look only at the tree in front of her face, he let her legs feel the way down, testing branch after endless branch before putting her weight on it, the routine perpetual. Finally she reached the ground and collapsed under her wobbling, screaming legs. Gasping with her exertions, she looked up at the deadly dance of Ramtor and Obsidicide, a little ball of purple whirling around the great lumbering black beast. Then the latter caught sight of her. It quickly dismissed Keon and came toward her before Keon grappled onto its face over its eyes. It screeched in rage and snapped its neck back to send Keon flying upwards, but not before Ayana had herself hidden behind a thick tree. She crouched and shook with terror, just begging no one in particular for her to live; she just wanted to live, it was all she wanted. She pushed away the ringing to concentrate on the shrieking. It was loud, then a crackling of undergrowth indicated it had swung around to face Keon. She took the opportunity and ran to the next tree. The crackling happened again, and in her mind's eye she saw the Obsidicide swinging around in an attempt to catch the lithe purple pokemon. Its back to her, she ran again, and from its continuous pattern of turning, she guessed that its hearing wasn't good enough to hear her trudging. Not only that but if it had acute hearing she assumed it would deafen itself with its roaring. Its strength must be in its sight, she concluded. She kept that in mind as she threw herself into the hollow of the tree and, trusting that she was right, cried "Keon!" The familiar sounds didn't change for a moment, but then suddenly she heard a small cry and then the shrieking ceased for a second. Then the great creature took off into the bushes, in her opposite direction. She sighed with relief. Keon was leading it away, but she was still dead scared for him. However, she wouldn't risk leaving the hollow tree cave, so instead she pushed herself to forage through Macario's bag to find a stash of tissues and wipe the dry blood from his temple. He moaned, and she wondered how much pain he felt compared to her. She would have felt angry that he had been unconscious through all that if she weren't so tired.

His eyes flickered open and he groaned, raising a hand up to rub his face. He brought it down again and caught sight of her suddenly, shock in his face. "Aya… Ayana…" He groaned again, and rubbed his face with both hands. She envied him for his energy. "Ugh, my head…" To her he seemed to mope, and she resented that. She was utterly spent and he had only been riding around all day, though he had bags under his eyes. That still meant she had less chance to escape again. If he had been looking for her, obviously he wanted to do her in. She had to do something.

Putting on a motherly tone of voice, she pushed him back gently, etching concern into her words. "Go back to sleep Macario, or you'll get sick."

"That _thing_…" He began, and she quickly but surreptitiously cut him off.

"It's gone Macario. You're safe now."

"Springdance…"

"Right here." She pressed the pokeball into his hand and put a hand on his forehead, suddenly realised that she _was _concerned about him. He was hot. "Macario, I want you to go to sleep, it's the best thing for you right now. I'll look after you, I'm here." She said, close to his face.

"My ears… they're burning…"

"So are min-" She cut herself off and changed her mind. If he worried about her he might not go to sleep. "-if you go to sleep you won't feel a thing. I'll make the pain go away if you promise me you'll go to sleep." She could barely believe she was making such ludicrous promises. Then she triumphed. He sighed and leant back again, relaxing. He seemed to fall asleep almost instantly. She stared at him, unable to help but want to sleep and relax as well. She turned and looked at her backpack knowing she should leave, but she just didn't have the energy nor the will to lift a finger. She looked at Macario again. It had been so long. She would have cried if she had the energy, and her tears were spent anyway.

She gave in to what she felt and laid herself over Macario and let his body heat give her strength, if just a little. The extra warmth didn't matter; she was gone – she let herself go. It had been too long.

Keon returned to her hours later, and it was dark when she left with a heavy bag, a heavy baby and a heavy heart.


End file.
